


/ 




J.E. Baits, S. M. Mc()iiii-y. M, 



cKue , E. K. B wn, M. 



M. Shields, A I.. Uee< 
Doiv, G. K. W. McGe 




-OF THE- 



ASS 




Containing The Exercises Of Commencement Week 
and dther interesting data, 
With an Introduction by Professor Wm H; Tibbals, Ph. D. 



Compiled By 
M. H. McLeod, 



— — :o:- 



PARK COLLEGE PRESS 
PARKVILLE, MISSOURI 

1889 



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Co ZHy Classmates, 

Now divided in space, 
Still United in Noble Aim and Purpose, 

Cfjts Book is DeMcateb 
BY THE COMPILER. 



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PARKVILLE, MO- 



GRADUATES, 

:o: -— - - 



Elsie Jane Bates, Montana, Kans. 

Frederick Lincoln Benedict, Caldwell, K^ns. 
Edward Allan Boyd, La Grange. 

Eugene Fulton Brown, Waverly, Kans. 
Franklin Lauren Brown, Girard, Kans. 
Lula Arnette Christian, Carlyle, Kans. 
Mary Jane Coffland, Cherokee, Kans. 
Bruce Wallace Cronmiller, Joliet, 111. 
Minnie Darlington, Kansas City. 
Mattie DeTar, Tia Juano, Cal. 

Susie Adelle Doty, Braid wood, 111. 

William Chamberlain Harris, Carthage. 
Clara Belle Hastings, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Joseph Ernest McAfee, Parkville. 

Wm. Frederick McClusky, Holland Patent, N. Y. 
Green Keiiey White McGee, Parkville. 

Malcolm H. McLeod, Kempt Road, N. S. . 
Martha Sylvia McQuitty, Mansfield, Pa. 
Jeanie Mitchell McRuer, Union Grove. 
Ida May Muir, Joplin. 
Agnes Lee Reed, Kahoka. 
Francis Rundus, New Tabor, Kans. 
Luther Mitchell Scroggs, Greenfield. 

Harvey Milton Shields, Archuleta, N. M. 
James Miller Smith, Newark, N. J. 
Adeline Love Tingley, Campbelle, la. 



GENERAL PROGRAM, 

Sunbay, 3 une 9**? :— 
11 :00 a.m. — Baccalaureate Sermon, By the Rev. 

W. H. Penhallegon. Streator, III. 
7:30 p.m.— Address to the Y, M. C. A., By 

Bishop D. R. Hendrix, Kansas City, Mo. 

ZTConbay, 3 une \Otfy:— 

7:30 p.m. — Joint Exhibition of the Literary 
Societies. Part I. 

Cuesbay, 3 une lltfy:— 

7:30 p.m. — Joint Exhibition of the Literary 
Societies. \ Part II. 

XDebnesbay, 3 une 12tfy:~~ 

10:30 a.m.— Address to the Societies, By the 
Rev. Prof. John Be Witt, D.D., Chicago, III. 

7:30 p.m. — Oration Before the Alumni, By the 
Rev. W. E. Penhallegon. 

Cfyursbay, 3une J3tt?: — 

10 :30 am, — Graduating Exercises of the Class 

of 1889. 



Contents. 



Class Phototype, Frontispiece, 

Preface, 5 

Introduction, 7 

Orations and Essays:— 

The New Birth of Japan, 9 

Knowledge as a Civilizer, ; 13 

■ Certain Phases of the English Language, 15 

The Sublimity of a Purpose, 19 

The Shirk in American Politics, 12 
Honor Oration, 

The West and its Literature, 26 

Incompleteness, 29 

The Aggressiveness of Free Thought, 32 

Russian Literature, , 37 

The Lost Art, 41 

Honor Essay, 

Higher Culture, 43 

Struggle, the Condition of Progress, 45 

What Place Shall We Fill? 50 

The Intoxication of Power, 53 
Honor Oration. 



CONTENTS. 

A Constitutional Venture. 57 
Honor and Macdonald prize Oration. 

England's Quaker Orator,, ) ,J 62 

Political Rectitude. 65 
Honor Oration. 

Savonarola 70 
Lawrence- Park Prize Essay. 

^Egean Writers, 74 

The Cost of Distinction, 87 

The Typical Warrior, 79 

God Revealed in His Works, 84 

Bridging the Gulf, , gg 
Bonor Oration, 

The Middle Ages-. Hildebrand, g 2 
Honor Oration. 

John Marshall; The Exemplary Judge 96 
Honor oration. 

Th2 Forgotten Hero ; - 100 

Salutatory of '89, 103 

Valedictory of '89, * 105 

BAOCAL AUREATE SERMON, 109 



Preface. 



:o:- 



OF making many books there is no end. So 
said a certain writer long before the days of 
type and printing presses. The compiler of the vol- 
ume now thrust upon the nineteenth century readers 
is indebted to him for this ample apology for his pres- 
ent attempt. It now only remains for him to ex- 
onerate the contributors from that basest and most 
odious form of pride — pride of intellect. True, gen- 
uine modesty reluctantly yielded to the earnest en- 
treaties of a few who desired the Commencement ex- 
ercises to be published and preserved in a permanent 
form. Far were they from making an overweening 
estimate of their talents or attainments; far were 
they from being vain enough to rush into print; far 
are they from trusting that these creations of their 
brains will, in cold type, meet with universal appro- 
bation; and far, it is hoped, is it from being true 
that they shall stand a favorable comparison to the 
forth-coming productions of their later and riper 
years. 

Though undeniably a literary symposium, though 
certainly possessing some sterling literary merit, yet 
it is the association and occasion that endear it to 
them and constitute its particular charms. Com- 
mencement day is to the general public an ordinary 



6 PREFACE. 

annual occasion. To the graduating class it marks 
an important epoch. On it they last unite in. concert- 
on it they diverge in the several radii of a circle nev- 
er to meet again within the compass of the four winds. 

As souvenirs of these endearments, the work was 
originally designed for private distribution only. 
The intention became known* the design over- 
stepped its former limitations, and the work was 
placed within the reach of all sufficiently interested. 
Still everyone procuring a copy receives therewith the 
compliments of the class of '89. Kindly preserve it 
where cobwebs do not gather, nor dust accumulate. 

M. H. M. 

Paekville, Mo. 
June 13 th 1889. 



Introduction. 



:o:- 



THIS pleasing bouquet of prose and poetry — leaf ard 
flower, — gathered in this bright June, is a fitting 
memento of the years of college, life — years of strug- 
gles and successes, of toils and joys, of tearful days 
and happy weeks, of pleasant freedom from re- 
sponsibility enjoyed under the fostering care of 
Alma Mater. College years are looked upon as the 
happiest of a student's life, and it is customary at 
commencement seasons for many to say that the hap- 
py days are now past. There is some truth and much 
error in the statement. These happy years are 
past but the memory of them will long remain to 
cheer one in the hours of disappointment that are 
sure to come. 

While the period of college life is passing there is 
little thought of the responsibility of the years to 
come. There are occasionally faint echoes from the 
cold world which awaken brief apprehension but soon 
the cheering realities of college life reassert them- 
selves and all is happy again. As the years pass rapidly 
and the time draws near when these pleasant associa- 
tions must be given up, the anxious question "What 
next? 11 begins to trouble the senior. Apprehensions 
of the stern responsibilities of active life and of the 
buffetings and jostlings of the world begin to arise 
and trouble the hours of reverie, but these difficulties 
are great only as they are brought near and mag- 
nified by the telescope of imagination. On the other 
hand there are some who may look forward with im- 
patience to the time when they may stand with men 
and bear a share of the burden c-f reclaiming the 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

world to righteousness. The enchantment which 
distance lends to these anticipated joys will diminish 
upon closer relations. 

One who has spent more than a decade in contact 
with the"cold world"from which he had heard so many 
chilling reports can testify that the world is cold only 
to hi ni who is chilling in his own unsympathetic suffi- 
ciency. Every young man and every young woman 
who has a willing mind, a warm heart, and a ready 
hand will find friends eager to lend a helping hand. 
The days and years to come will be just as full of 
happiness as any that are past, and the delight is so 
much the greater as the responsibilities faithfully 
met are greater. There is always a pleasure in com- 
petition and a satisfaction in duty well done. Con- 
tact with fellow men will develop keener sensibilities 
and stronger character provided always that choice 
is made of the right end and aim in life. 

There is a work for each one who has had the 
special preparation of a college course. "But all 
vocations are crowded," som3 one says. "There is 
plenty of room on top 1 ' as Mr. Webster is reported to 
have said when he was told that the legal profession 
was already over-crowded. The way is open for 
leaders and there is scope for the powers of every 
true man and every true woman. There are difficul- 
ties to be met, but these may be overcome by earnest 
effort founded on faith in God Who can tell which 
of the contributors to this bouquet will become the re- 
nowned minister of the Gospel, or the upright judge, 
or the great teach _r, — a second Dr. Arnold, or the 
great writer of the twentieth century, or the distin- 
guished leader in politics or society? Each may be 
what he wills to be and realize the joys and satisfac- 
tion of a life of usefulness. 

June, 1889. W. H. T. 



Orations and Essays, 



:0:- 



THE NEW BIRTH OF JAPAN, 



Jennie E. Bates. 



IT is with peculiar interest that America watches 
the progress of Japan , for it was America that first 
opened the hermit kingdom and brought her into the 
community uf nations, helped her in her political 
and social revolutions, and sent her the first mission- 
aries of the Cross. 

Japan dates her authentic history back to 660 B. C . 
Yet toda}' the ruler of the Island Empire exchanges 
greetings with the President of the youngest nation 
of the world. Scarcely a generation has passed since 
the Japanese emerged from their oriental exclusive- 
ness, and entered the society of Western nations with 
a rapidity unparalleled in history. Previous to this 
era her shores were guarded against intercourse with 
foreigners by a feudal oligarchy. 

These great and sudden changes have not come ar- 
bitrarily, but have been provided for in the anteced- 
ent condition of the people. To measure the tremen- 
dous leap made from the old state, we must know 



ic ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. . 

something of her form of government and condition 
of society before she came in contact with the West. 

Of her five classes of inhabitants, the feudal lords 
and knights for centuries monopolized arms, polite 
learning, intellect and patriotism. Below thpse were 
the common people, who were without political priv- 
ileges. 

To the twelfth century, the Mikado was sole ruler, 
but during a decay of power the dual S3~stem of gov- 
ernment was established. The Mikado at Kioto was 
a mere figure-head and the sceptre of power was 
wielded by the Shogun' at Yeddo. But this state of 
affairs was not to exist forever, for during the later 
part of the last century and the beginning of this, the 
daimios awoke to their political position and p-3wer, 
and all research of scholars and statesmen only re- 
vealed the more clearly the real position of the usur- 
per. The Empire was ripe for revolution when the 
"barbarian 1 ' appeared in the Bay of Yeddo. The 
Shogun , after brief deliberation, and without author- 
ity, signed a treaty with Commodore Perry; immed- 
iately the war of 1868 followed, in which the Shogun 
was forced to retire and the Mikado was restored to 
power. During this time the feudal system which 
bad existed for centuries was gradually abolished, 
and the reform movement received its first impulse. 

The authority of the Crown being strengthened, 
the Emperor, instead of exercising despotic rule, with 
the aid of those statesmen who commanded his con- 
fidence, instituted the national movement in which 



THE NEW BIRTH OF JAPAN. u 

Western elements were introduced, in remodeling the 
government. 

In 1881 a parliament was called to carry into ef- 
fect the establishment of a constitutional form of 
goverment. And the last of a series of important 
acts was the promulgation of the new laws, which 
occurred Febuary 11th, 1889. In the provision of 
the new constitution the people will have a share in 
the goverment. Japan, instead of an absolute mon- 
archy, will be an hereditary Sovereign state, with 
the Mikado as chief of the army and navy, having 
power to open and dissolve parliament, declare war, 
and conclude peace. Complete liberty of speech, 
public meeting, and religion is established. The con- 
stitution has not met the desires of all, but it concedes 
much, and in time to come promises more, as 
the people are fitted to have greater liberty and 
power. 

Political progress has gone on hand in hand with 
the construction of public work, the building of a na- 
vy, the establishment of new industries, and a system 
of education. Colleges abound for young men, to 
each of which is attached an extensive library of na- 
tive and foreign works, showing the thoroughness 
with which they have begun the work of culture. 

This once hermit people now visit and study in all 
the great cities of Europe and America, old superstitons 
are aielting away, belief in witch-craft, sorcery, and 
enchantment is fading, nature-worship is dead, Bud- 
dhism and Christianitv have a fair field of contest be- 



12 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

fore them, and it is not difficult to forecast which in 
the end must triumph. 

Old Japan has forever passed away to live only in 
art, drama and literature. New Japan opens its 
broad-armed ports, North, South, East and West, to 
invite the commerce of the world. She is in no danger 
of entangling alliances, which shall compel her to 
fight battles not her own. A prophecy of good is 
justified by the course of recent events. As "the 
building of a nation requires the wisdom of the wis- 
est, and the virtues of the best, 11 as "good govern- 
ment is the last attainment of civilization, 1 ' the 
most liberal and patriotic men of Japan are working 
to this end, and their labor will not be without re- 
ward. 

Thus situated, the "Land of the Rising Sun 11 has 
no reason to be envious of any of her neighbors. 
Even the "Celestial Kingdom 1 ' is no longer counted 
worthy of a place in the same rank. Japan does not 
put forth the claim to be classed with America, Eng- 
land, Germany, or France, but in political organiza- 
tion she is the equal of Italy, in general intelligence 
she has out-stripped the once glorious Spain, in free- 
dom of speech she is over-riding haughty Russia. 
Roused b}' the restless Americans from her sleep of 
centuries, the glory of barbarous, heathen Japan has 
faded away before the splendor of the moral, intel- 
lectual and material growth of the new. 



KNOWLEDGE AS A dVILIZER, 



Fred L. Benedict. 



IN ethical, philanthropic, and Christian writings we 
perpetually meet with the declaration, "Ignorance 
is the parent of vice;" and since this is true, it is 
therefore self-evident that knowledge is the remedy, 
for ignorance and knowledge are diametrically 
opposed. 

Shakespeare says. "Ignorance is the curse of God; 
knowledge the wing wherewith we rly to heaven." 
But neither clause states the entire truth. A man 
is not necessarily cursed because he is ignorant: a 
fault not his own may account for lack of education. 
Neither is it true that knowledge alone will carry 
a man to heaven; the educated infidel is a detriment 
to society. It is a well established truth that know^- 
ledge without the fear of G-od, which is the beginning 
of wisdom, is the most dangerous power which can 
influence the minds of men. 

But it is not so much education in the individual as 
in national affairs, that we are to consider. We may 
safely say that. education tends to a nation's prosper- 
ity. Let the rulers or voters be ignorant and adver- 
sity follows. 

The representative of our nation is placed there by 
the votes of the people; how necessary then that pop- 



14 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

ular suffrage should be supported by popular educa- 
tion. This idea is recognized among us in regard to 
the African race. Imbue the minds of our citizens 
with justice, benevolence, virtue and mental culture, 
then vice will diminish, and civil duties will be more 
carefully discharged. 

It is our system of education that is laying a firm 
foundation for our government. This opinion the 
father of our country expressed in his first annual 
message. He says, "Knowledge is in every country 
the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which 
the measure of government receive their impressions 
so immediately from the sense of the community as 
in ours, it is proportionably essential/ 7 Again in his 
farewell address occur those memorable words: "In 
proportion as the structure of a government gives 
force to public opinions, it is essential that public 
opinions should be enlightened. " 

Other nations are building their foundations on the 
same principle. Belgium boasts of fifty years of free- 
dom by reason of it. China and Siam are being per- 
suaded to make it the corner stone of their govern- 
ment. The Indian is laying aside his arrows and ap- 
plying his hands to labor. Italy and Greece are look- 
ing toward a still higher order of culture, and France 
makes it a stone in the arch of her government. 

By these and other important facts we perceive the 
power of knowledge, and the strength its mighty in- 
liuence wields. It gives vitality to our many branches 
of industry, to inventions that have bound our land 



CERTAIN PHASES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 15 

with railroads, ard propelled immense ships across 
the mighty oceans, and connected Europe and Amer- 
ica by cable. Education makes the great wheels of 
our nation revolve and pilots it to the harbor of pros- 
perity. As for man, it seeks admission into the secret 
recesses of his mind, and offers its strong and mighty 
hand to guide him to success. 



:o; : — 



CERTAIN PHASES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 



E. A. Boyd. 



AS long as there be men who love to read of deed s 
of valor and chivalry; as long as there remains 
in the human breast an element that can be stirred 
by tales of tragedy or love, and moved to excited in- 
terest by the record of history, so long will there be a 
place for the works of Dickens and Scott, Shakespeare 
and Milton, Longfellow and Holmes, Bacon and 
Macaulay. 

Not long after that Greek language had fallen from 
its undisputed supremacy, a small seed that bad fall- 
en deep within a fertile soil, began to show signs of 
vigorous life. That seed contained the germ of the 
English language. From that time until now it has 



1 6 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

been growing stronger and more powerful. Every 
attacking storm has added new vigor and given great- 
er possibilities for deeper growth. Every contact 
with other tongues has increased its capacity for finer 
and more distinct shades of thought. Every attempt 
to make it secondary to other languages has but 
given it an opportunity to borrow an equipage of syn- 
onyms and again go free, vastly richer than before. 
Through storms and difficulties, great and numerous, 
has the English language grown and developed. The 
small acorn has become a majestic oak, spreading its 
branches in rich profusion, and every true, deep prin- 
ciple may find safe lodgement within its branches. 

The growth of the English language has been won- 
derful. It seems to have a peculiarly magnetic pow- 
er that can attract and adapt the beauties of other 
languages. From the ruins of other tongues it has 
constantly been gathering the choicest relics. It is a 
heritage whose value can be only in the smallest de- 
gree appreciated. To him who uses it dissrinrinately 
and properly, it is a source of wealth and power. 
The rapid growth of our language can be account- 
ed for by the ease with which foreign accessions may 
be assimilated. In it the Anglo Saxon, French, Latin, 
Greek are all blended. Their peculiarities are lost 
sight of, and they form a union of such symmetry and 
stability that discrimination is practically impossible. 
Change has been a marked characteristic of our 
tongue. To him who is conversant with the English 
of Longfellow, that of Chaucer conveys only now and 



CERTAIN PHASES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 17 

then an idea; but the basis of each is the same. They 
represent different stages of development and out- 
growth of the same pure germ. 

The rapid spread of the language is clue not so much 
to the qualities of the language itself as to the high 
character of the people among whom it has gained 
its most marked perfection. Anglo Saxon civilization 
has given the Anglo Saxon language great influence 
wherever it has come. But the virtue of its advocates 
has given power to the language. The superiority of 
its language can never produce virtue in a nation. 
Any other germ among the same people would have 
been as carefully developed and pushed toward preemi- 
nence. The language of a people seeking purity must 
be pure. It then gains an immeasurable advantage of 
appeal to the instincts of humanity. Mark the speech 
of the American people and find in it an index to the 
American purity of heart. What mean those volumes 
of vulgarisms that greet the ear? It is but a lower- 
ing of the standard of the language that is worthy of 
honor and should command our reverence. Say rath- 
er, What means this complacent toleration of de- 
graded and meaningless street phrases? It is but an 
indication of our little appreciation of the rare gem 
entrusted to our safe keeping. We pronounce him a 
traitor who tramples the American flag under foot, 
because he dishonors that emblem of unity and liberty 
around which our people gather with feelings of ex- 
ultation and patriotism. But he who brings to shame 
our language should receive disapprobation because 



18 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

he debases that which is the pride of even greater 
multitudes of people. The traitor proves false to a 
nation and dies. The inventor of colloquialisms 
drags the pride of nations in the dust, 3-et lives. 

The possibilities of the English language are guaged 
by the character of the people using it. There lie 
before it two roads. It may, by a close adherence to 
fundamental principles, become the medium of speech 
for the nations of the earth; or, like the Greek, it 
may become somewhat prominent, produce a few 
works that may endure the wearing effects of time, 
be the weapon used by a few great statesmen in the 
defence of justice, and then sink into obscurity and at 
last have the honor of being merely a sacred monu- 
ment of what might have been. History will have 
a grand success to record or a dismal failure to relate. 
She will tell of the spread and supremacy of that 
speech that now blesses our shores, or picture in dis- 
mal shades the ruins of that sacred "temple of 
fame, 11 — the English language. She will compose 
for us a grand melody that will stir everj^ heart 
with joy and gladness as our speech attains still 
greater perfection; or she will arrange, for the ears 
of those who follow us, a minor 5>o deep that every 
breast will vibrate with the strangely saddened 
strains. For her future possibilities, the present 
generation is, in some degree at least, responsible. 
With the sacredness with which it is held by us must 
come success or failure. In proportion as we hold 
her upon the plain of highest regard will she be es- 



THE SUBLIMITY OF A PURPOSE. 19 

teemed by others. And in so far as she becomes 
the possession of a peorJle loving righteousness an d 
justice and truth, in so far will she be crowned the 
queen of languages and be raised aloft where her 
sparkling jewels of thought may glisten on and on 
and on in the dazzling light of coming centuries. 



:0: 



THE SUBLIMITY OF A PURPOSE 



E. F. Brown. 



HE who carefully studies the plants during their 
different stages of growth; or the movement of 
the stars in the heavens, cannot but acknowledge that 
they are the work of a master workman. He will 
find nothing of created matter at absolute rest. 
Every particle of dust at our feet is at work, fulfilling 
a purpose sublime and incomprehensible to finite be- 
ings. Hence, since the author of nature had a pur- 
pose, it is of the greatest importance that man, the 
most favored of creatures, should have a purpose — 
a dennite aim around which all his plans center. 
Carlyle says: "A man without a purpose is no man. 11 
Indeed a man without a purpose is like a ship with- 
out chart or compass on an unknown sea. It has no 



20 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

definite course; but is blown hither and thither by 
varying winds. So the man who has no particular 
course is tossed about by the winds of chance. Man 
is the ship; the world is the sea; the port toward 
which his course should be directed is success; the 
propelling power is purpose. 

When yon walk thp streets made brilliant by 
means of electricity, pause to consider why Edison 
persevered in the study of the laws of electricity; 
even after he and his appliances for making experi- 
ments were kicked out. A great thought had been 
impressed upon his mind. He could not banish it: 
it must be worked out. His purpose in life was to 
solve some of the mysteries of electricity. The re- 
sult is millions of dollars added to the wealth of the 
world; caused by the following out of a sublime pur- 
pose. 

Cooper, the great philanthropist, was an appren- 
tice. Feeling the need of more education he sought 
to find an open way to success. But none was to be 
found. He resolves to establish a school for the train- 
ing of * 'apprentices and mechanics". To the accom- 
plishment of this end were all the efforts of his life 
directed. The Cooper Institute, with its lecture 
course, with its schools in which the practical 
branches are taught, is a fitting monument to a life 
with a definite purpose. 

Why does every true American praise and honor 
the name of the immortal Garfield? Is it because 
he was cruelly murdered by the hand of a cowardly 



THE SUBLIMITY OF A PURPOSE. 21 

assassin? Yes, both, some say. But does not a 
grander and more sublime feeling rise when it is re- 
membered that he had a definite purpose which led 
him from the log-cabin to president of a college; from 
president of a college to the army; from the army to 
Congress; from Congress to President of the United 
States. That purpose was how he [might be of the 
best service to his fellow- men. 

What made Peter the Great one of the best of the 
world's monarchs? It comes from the fact that he 
had a definite aim — an aim that caused hiaa to go to 
Holland's shipyards as a poor ship-carpenter, an aim 
that led him to visit the different countries of Europe, 
undergoing hardships that he might better learn how 
to govern his people, 

Geology teaches that ages ago nature was at work 
in her laboratory preparing the world for man w^hen 
he should come to inhabit it. Change after change, 
transformation after transformation took place ful- 
filling a purpose. 

History! We are taught in thy pages of the rise of 
men and states which have had a definite purpose, 
Also of the fall of men and republics from lack of 
earnest, well-directed action. By means of the rocks 
you tell us of the purpose of a divine Architect ages 
ago. Opposition! You have aided us in our progress. 
Your blows have but strengthened the character of 
men whom you thought to turn from their purpose. 
Perseverance! You have ever been our faithful guide. 
You have brought us to an eminence but to show us 



22 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

another to be gained. You have ever kept us from 
faltering in our purpose. You have held before us 
the motto: "Higher, forever higher". 



:o; 



THE SHIRK IN AMERICAN POLITICS, 



L. F. Brown. 



TN the possession of pure morals and Christian virtues 
JL America has no equal; but it is painfully evident 
there is not a nation on the face of the earth in which 
bad men have such facilities for acquiring and re- 
taining power. They win elections to seats in the na- 
tional legislature by fraud and bribery; they perch 
like foul birds in the offices of great cities; they batten 
upon public spoil; they disgrace Christian civilization 
and free institutions; they debase the moral sense of 
the nation. 

Who is responsible for this? Not the bad men, main 
]y, for if the devil is permitted to manage the politics 
of a nation, we expect him to do it. Politics are in 
his particular line. It is no glittering generality to 
affirm that the good men of America are mainly 
responsible for this evil in politics. Think of 
it ! They have the best social influences, — the 



THE SHIRK IN AMERICAN POLITICS. 23 

Christian church, the literary institutions, the pure 
sympathies of women, reason, conscience, God, all 
on their side, and the onty reason the bad reign, and 
the good are powerless, is the good are shirks. They 
seem not to grasp their relations to the State; they 
seem to possess a moral poverty which excludes them 
from patriotic motives and duties. 

The good men of our country are so engrossed in 
some grand and supreme object in life, they forget 
what moral philosophy as well as patriotism teaches 
concerning personal responsibilty to government. 
Political responsibility is not a personal privilege to 
be used or neglected at will. It is not a question of 
personal convenience or of interest, but of public re- 
sponsibility. The ballot does not of itself insure a 
just distribution of influence, for it gives to the igno- 
rant and the corrupt the same weight in government 
as the wise and virtuous. If the intelligent and hon- 
est neglect this duty, they surrender the government 
to the vicious and the wicked. The operation of per- 
sonal influence is checked, that influence which gives 
to the wise and virtuous citizen control of the votes 
of the ignorant and thoughtless. The moral grandeur 
and purity of these good men shrivel wonderfully 
when the light of patriotism and personal responsi- 
bility is focused upon them. 

Yet these political shirks are very respectable. 
Let us not question the whiteness of their fragrant 
hands. They are exceedingly clean, pure men; their 
particular fault, if they have any, being an excessive 



24 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

cleanliness which unfits them for contact with the 
world. Year after year they refuse to visit the polls 
because politics has become so corrupt; they have 
ceased to have any interest because good men are not 
nominated. Would it not be well to attend a primary 
occasionally to see whether good men are nominated? 
Would it not be well for these Peters on the Mount 
of Transfiguration to descend into the trials and tempt- 
ations of the political arena? Mystery of mysteries, 
why God permits such spotless robes of purity to de- 
scend to this sin-cursed world! Of all the shirks 
which the prolific evil of America produces there cer- 
tainly can be none more despicable than these. 

There is another class of good men who value polit- 
ical privileges so cheaply they are ready to sell them 
for personal ease and comfort. They are exceedingly 
patriotic, ready to do anything for the nation, if it 
costs not too much time or trouble or money. These 
good nifm have declined office, have shunned public 
duty, because it costs too much! Does it cost noth- 
ing to see offices held by second and third rate poli- 
ticians, to be themselves ruled by vicious men? Can 
they afford tojhave the institutions of their country 
cheapened and disgraced by the wicked administra- 
tion of law? Life consist in the abundance of the 
things a man possesses! Life a struggle of getting 
rather than doing and being! Life is real and earn- 
est only to that American citizen whose radii of heart 
and brain and muscle and concentrated manhood 
touch the circumference of his life, to that man only 



THE SHIKK.IN AMERICAN POLITICS. 25 

who comes up to the full measure of his social and po- 
litical responsibilities. What a dilemma our political 
life is in! One class so good as to be disgusted with po- 
litics, another class so busy as not t6 have time for at- 
tending to them. What shall become of a nation where 
good men instead of leading political battles fight 
humbly in the ranks or run away, or refuse to part- 
icipate in the elections or be elected to office when an 
aroused moral sentiment designates them for such a 
position? It may be the province of the Creator to 
permit evil; it is never the province of his creatures. 
What is the medicine for this selfish indifference? 
We need enlarged sympathies, quickened activities as 
members of a national brotherhood; we need to com- 
prehend more deeply our political duties. There 
must be willingness to perform them; for there is not 
an interest in life on which these duties do not have 
a practical bearing. There must be more unselfish- 
ness, more willingness to do and die for that which is 
God-like in our souls and God- given in our institu- 
tions. We need nothing to make this government 
the best of all governments, except to take the gov- 
ernment from the hands of self-seeking and office 
seeking politicians and place in power only those 
whom the virtuous and intelligent regard as the best 
men. Until there is this mighty uprising against cor- 
ruption and wrong, this patriotic re-awakening to the 
duties of citizenship, place will give honor to no man, 
and our Republicanism will become contemptible 
among the nations of the world. 



THE WEST, AND ITS LITERATURE 



Lutie A. Christian. 



WHAT is the West, and where? The definition 
must of necessity be somewhat vague, for the 
farther east one lives, for him the farther east the 
great West extends. 

The West, as treated in fiction by some authors, is 
something of a modern Utopia, while with others 
there is a shade of difference between it and the Sa- 
hara. Its extreme bright side or its extreme dark 
side is portrayed, and finally it is left the most com- 
monplace of all common places. 

The only ideas which a large majority of cur peo- 
ple have of opposite parts of our country are obtain- 
ed through the current literature. Opinions are form- 
ed without waiting for authentic statements. Such 
a class, probably, associate with the term "West" a 
vague idea of sand-hills and wild Indians, and are per- 
fectly astounded with the suggestion, for instance, 
that some one has made of having the National capi- 
tal moved in that direction, more toward the center 
of the Union. Very likely their knowledge of it is 
composed of a hazy idea which they have obtained 
from some novel. For no matter what else the au- 
thors make prominent, they almost invariably succeed 



THE WEST, AND ITS LITERATURE. 27 

in making a ridiculous picture of the looks, language 
or customs of the western people. 

There are great difficulties in the way of a new 
country's securing its own literature. Recall the 
days when there was no such thing as American lit- 
erature, when the sneer of English critics was more 
feared than the cannon, making our best authors 
quail, fearing lest their reputation be ruined unless 
the English nodded approval. Dicken's works display 
the feeling that then existed between the two coun- 
tries. A somewhat analagous feeling exists between 
the literature of the eastern and western parts of our 
land. Tne eastern authors answer well to the de- 
scription of that certain one who was forgiven ten 
thousand talents but would not forgive another one 
hundred pence. The literature 'of any country gen- 
erally possesses its own distinctive marks. This ap- 
plies particularly to the best western authors. 

Bret Hart, our western humorist, actually saw and 
experienced the themes of his productions. His 
"Luck of Roaring Camp" and "Outcasts of Poker 
Flat" revealed life to his eastern friends under new, 
startling and almost incomprehensible conditions, yet 
the more fascinating on this very account. Many 
of his poems are addressed to objects which had 
a peculiar interest for himself, and concerned unusual 
experiences during his western travels. In another 
strain, his well-known sequel to Maud Muller gives 
a moral equal in pathos to the original, the conclu- 
sion being, "It is, but hadn't ought to be." He went 



28 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

east to enjoy his fame, but soon returned, for his best 
efforts were put forth under the influence of life and 
scenery of the Pacific slope. 

B©b Burdette, the comic western writer and lectur- 
er, first began his humorous style for the amusement 
of his invalid wife, but was soon on demand for the 
entertainment of city after city. 

Helen Hunt Jackson, though born in the east, is 
called a western writer; for she knows the West 
as is clearly shown in her works. Her interesting and 
instructive stories treat of the far West. In "Romo- 
na" her theme is the life of a girl among the Spanish 
and Indians of California. She tells us also of the 
difficulty which both the Spaniards and Indians had 
in obtaining titles to their lands, it being but a short 
time after California had been ceded to our Govern- 
ment by Mexico. 

The Mormons contribute to the literature of the 
West. Although not so elevating or inspiring as 
some perhaps, it gives us some ideas of the life and 
work among them. Idaho, the gem of the mountains; 
Colorado, with her beautiful resorts for health and 
recreation; Dakota, with her vast extent of interesting 
territory; California, with her balmy equatorial cli- 
mates, and beautiful beaches of the peaceful Pacific; 
Utah, with all her varied experiences: the entire West, 
with her wide awake and enterprising people, cer- 
tainly has great things in store for the literary talent, 
which is surely there and is only awaiting a culmina- 
tion. Considering the West of fact or fiction we find 



INCOMPLETENESS. 29 

a place where there need be no economy as to land, 
water or fresh air, however much it is found necessa- 
ry to economize in other necessities of life. 

The call, "Go West, Young Man, 1 ' has certainly 
oeen well heeded by those seeking their fortunes, but 
there is still a wide margin for those who are partic- 
ularly interested in the literary field. Quite fre- 
quently quality makes up for quantity, but in this 
case, when there is so large a field, it certainly seems 
that there should be an advance in quantity also. Then 
the West would be better known and not so frequent- 
ly misrepresented. 



:o.-- 



INCOMPLETENESS, 



Mary J. Cofflanu. 



WHAT song is ever so sweet but that the singers 
thought was sweeter? What poet has given his 
best thoughts to the world? What artist or sculptor 
is there whose oanvass has reflected his highest 
dream, or whose patient toil has been rewarded by 
the exact embodiment of his ideal? Language is in- 
adequate to express all the music of the heart, all the 
poetry of the nlind. Skill can never so completely 



30 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

control the painter's brush or the sculptor's chisel 
but that some shading, some chiseling, will mar 
the perfection. Although nothing is complete, 
yet we may easily trace the efforts of man in his con- 
tinual search after completeness. Wherever men 
mingle together there is someone who is recognized 
as possessing greater abilities than the rest. In pro- 
portion as these powers are developed, he receives 
their respect and admiration. It is inherent in the 
nature of man to receive guidance from those who 
are his superiors. The first forms of government 
were very simple. In the patriarchal government, 
the father of the family was the legal, as well as the 
natural, governor. This form was superseded by a 
government which extended over the whole tribe and 
finally over a nation. These have in turn been gov- 
ned by the monarchial, aristocratic and democratic 
forms. 

Although in this greatest of all centuries, many 
inventions of the utmost importance have been made, 
yet the maximum has not been reached. The tele- 
scope reveals to man that the stars are not simply the 
"lesser lights" which "God made to rule the night", 
and that this earth instead of being the center of 
the universe, is only one of countless planets which 
take their course around the sun. But myriads of 
planets circle through boundless space, which the 
strongest telescope fails to bring within our range 
of vision. 

In years past the trireme was monarch of the 



INCOMPLETENESS. 3 1 

ocean. Behold now. the swift steamers plowing the 
mighty deep, defying the wind, and laughing in the 
face of the storms. On land, the crawling stage- 
coach is replaced by the express trains before whose 
approach mountains are leveled, valleys filled, rivers 
spanned by magnificent bridges, and cities are no 
longer hundreds of miles apart but only a pleasant 
ride of a few hours. Heralds and bonfires are no 
longer needed to spread the news from city to city. 
Electricity carries our messages from continent to 
continent at a speed which almost annhilates time 
and space. From a vague, indefinite knowledge of 
its nature, from a timid and uncertain use of its 
power, we have come to understand that it is one day to 
be our servant, and perhaps the next century will be 
the time for its fullest development. 

As the light of a candle dispels the darkness for a 
few feet around, so the inventions of men banish the 
ignorance, of the world; but the inventions now, 
in proportion to those that will be, are as the feeble 
rays of the candle to the light of the noonday sun. 

Students study the various things marked out for 
their instruction only to find, when their course is 
finished, that they have been led to numberless door?, 
the opening wide of any one of which, even with the 
experiences of all the great of the earth before them, 
requires more than the allotted three score and ten 
years. No scientist has unveiled all the secrets of 
nature. No Solomon has learned all that is to be 
known. 



32 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

One by one Nature yields her secrets. Man, whose 
ambition knows no bounds, whose capacity for knowl- 
edge is limitless, by delving deep down in the earth, 
or, in his eagerness, mounting to the stars, will con- 
tinue to search after hidden things as long as oppor- 
tunity offers, until the unknown is merged into the 
known, until incompleteness is swallowed up in the 
complete. 



:o: 



THE AGGRESSIVESS OF FREE THOUGHT, 



Bruce W. Cronmiller. 



IN 1776 a revolutionary hero stood before the assem- 
bled patriots of the Thirteen Colonies, and with 
tongue touched with the fire and eloquence of inspira- 
tion exclaimed, "We are men! We are free men! 11 
Freedom is the proudest heritage of our race. From 
it arise the noble dignity and divine possibilities of 
man. From it has sprung man's permanent progress, 
and in it is mirrored the significance of his high des- 
tiny. It is the iron cable that binds earth to heaven; 
that links man to God and the angels. Every heaven 
born aspiration — all emulation eminates from man's 
freedom; every worthy ambition is supported by it. 



THE AGGRESSIVENESS OF FREE THOUGHT. 33 

Nature, in her constant evolution of beauty, symme- 
try and utility, is our wisest and most constant teacher. 
Her great continents and mighty rivers; her riclv 
meadows and lonely forests; her verdant hills and 
sublime mountains, all become a part of man, devel- 
op him into a sovereign self-hood, and make him 
greater and nobler than them all. Under such tu- 
telage his trained eye and aspiring heart* behold, in 
universal nature and inhumanity, their Great Author, 
and around the Creator man centers the energy and 
purpose and triumphant progress of the centuries. 

In the external and internal world man is in tile 
midst of perpetual and mighty changes. Their laws, 
if known, will elevate and ennoble him, but unknown, 
they will low r er and debase him as the puppet of hos- 
tile forces. Surrounded thus, man has been endowed 
by his Divine Fashioner with an inward necessity for 
independent thought and action. 

The principle of progression is eternal in the hu- 
man soul and in the might of free thought, "turning 
restlessly to find the healing light of truth 11 it is a 
perpetual well-spring of invention and discovery. 
The thinking man, girt about with free strength, and 
impelled by a sense of life's high purpose, dares ven- 
ture where all is to his fellow-man "the clashing of 
worlds and the chaos of matter. 11 With faith strong 
and warm, with the pulsations of life, he accepts 
reason's service and sanction, and with this union of 
positive forces he writes the history of a Christian 
civilization. 



34 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

Under the controlling love of truth, man's mind 
teems with living thought which must come to the 
birth and be clothed and nurtured. 

Those evolution forces in the world struggling for 
an outward expression of the heaven-born personality 
in man, are generated by the enginery of free thought, 
They light fire in the human soul whose burning can 
not be quenched until it has consumed some Procrus- 
tean bed of belief or destroyed some cloak of cher- 
ished ignorance. The meridian sun of a new dispen- 
sation has arisen and now lights with divine signifi- 
cance Canaans hitherto unknown ! 

To men of big brain and strong heart, the histo r y 
of human progress is the record of a slow and pain- 
ful advance. In its track they see the protsrate bod- 
ies of those "high priests of truth", who being dead 
yet speak to us and generations to come. When a 
Socrates or an Aristides has appeared glowing with 
some of the recovered majesty of man, the waiting 
hemlock or impending pstracism has not swerved 
him from the divine purpose of his life. 

The philosopher sees the apple fall, and his quick- 
ened intellect catches from it the hypothetical thought 
of gravity. His active genius has soon wrought out 
the principles of his great discovery and their publi- 
cation revolutionizes a world of scientific thought. 
Nothing but truth's freeing, energizing power could 
have infused into the world's sluggish blood the ele- 
ments of a vigorous progression. 

The study of unbalanced continents waked the 



THE AGGRESSIVENESS OF FREE THOUGHT. 35 

thought of a new world, and the undaunted mariner 
overcoming an incredulous court and the fear and 
mutiny of a superstitious crew, crossed a trackless 
ocean to find a new world in the West. 

Night by night the great Laplace scanned the heav- 
ens with its million star points until upon his vision 
Hashed a universe of formulating worlds whose cour- 
ses and harmony bear the impress of Almighty con- 
trol. With a glad spring of triumph, the great 
astronomer passes from a system of worlds drawn 
in the lines and angles of human architecture to a 
universe fashioned by Divine Mechanism and govern- 
ed by the wisdom and power of an Infinite Creator. 

The famed "stone mason of Cromarty," unsatisfied 
with the theories of an arbitrary authority, with faith in 
his heart and iron in his hand, saw in the fossil re- 
mains of his own Scotch hills a new tablet of law, div- 
iner and clearer and fuller. The old red sandstone 
were eloquent with tongues of flame and the fossil forms 
were stern and rigid with the stress of a new revelation. 
Through them came to him the vision of varied life 
ascending through the centuries, springing from 
creation to creation until matter and spirit blended 
and crowded creation's work in Man. 

This immortal principle of progress scattered broad- 
cast the seeds of human freedom in England, and in 
our nation they have grown into the larger, broader 
principle of civil and religious liberty. 

Stimulated by the vigor and activity of free thought 
the human race is effecting its own deliverance, and 



36 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

is regaining its primitive nobility and dignity. The 
wisdom and might of free thought is building the 
sublime and enduring structure of a Christian civil- 
ization. It is writing a Science whose scope and 
unity are God's. It is formulating a Philosophy that 
is warm and vital with God's beneficence. It con- 
firms man's regard for all that is sacred and true in 
human and divine institutions, and turns him from 
the baseness of slavery to the cautious reverence of 
wisdom and love. 

With stronger, freer energies and more benevolent 
purposes, man originates the moral and political 
forces which are working great and permanent chan- 
ges in his fellow man, ^and in the institutions of 
government and society 

These ever new , ever living forces, impelled by the 
needs and opportunities of successive ages, will make 
the circle of truth wider and still wider until it shall 
emerge into the full light of its glorious center and 
encompass the eternal throne of God. 



— :o: — 



RUSSIAN LITERATURE. 



Minnie Darlington. 



IT may be said that the emancipation of literature in 
Russia dates back scarcely fifty years : hence pres- 
ent interest evinced in it by Americans is chiefly due 
to novelty; for it must be admitted that one of our 
most prominent national traits is an enthusiastic 
admiration of something new and striking. Yet it 
has been said that this one trait shows us to advan- 
tage, as it betokens a healthy curiosity in intellectual 
matters; for there is no surer sign a man or country 
has ceased to grow than the disposition to believe 
that all the songs have been sung, that everything 
that can be known about human nature is already 
trite, and that the methods of the past are the only 
ones deserving of respect. 

The announcement that translations had been 
made from a Russian novelist was received with 
curiosity and surprise. Literary talent was not or- 
dinarily thought of in connection with the Russians, 
who, from the imperfect view obtained of them 
through the medium of foreign translators, seemed to 
be composed of only two classes, — the educated, in- 
telligent Russians whose time and talents, seemed to 
be taken up in the political upheavals of their coun- 
try, and the other class, stupid indifferent peasants. 



38 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

Then there stood the Censor, ever on guard with his 
fatal red pencil to interdict anything relating to the 
civil wrongs of the people, or any disparagement of 
the Russian system of government. Seemingly it was 
rather a hopeless out-look, as no phase of Russian 
life of enough interest to warrant its portrayal could 
be portrayed, for fear of that power upon the throne, 
whose oppression the highest in rank has felt in com- 
mon with the meanest serf. 

It was left for Tourgenief, who was the first of the 
Russian writers to be introduced to the Americans, to 
prove that phases of Russian life and character which 
could awaken wide spread interest, and also current 
political topics, could be treated in such a manner 
that the Censor would allow them to pass inspection. 
His first important work, ''Annals of ja Sportsman," 
achieved great popularity as is generally the case 
with a novel which is called into existence by the 
presence of social evils, and whose great aim is the 
righting of them. This work so vividly portrayed 
the horrors and wrongs of ;. serfage, that it finally led 
to the emancipation of the serf. Hi* other works 
were of such a decidedly socialistic order, that they 
finally brought him to prison. 

After Tourgenief, came Tolstoi, whose works, now 
widely read, have shown us a breadth of insight into 
character and depth of analysis unsurpassed in any 
literature. They express very fully the tremendous 
and incessant intellectual and moral turmoil that has 
agitated Russia during the last twenty-live years. 



RUSSIAN LITERATURE, 39 

Although Tourgenief was the first to give Americans 
their knowledge of Russian talent for description, his 
was not the first blow against the social wrongs of 
his country. Years before his "Annals , ' , were publish- 
there appeared a satirical work entitled "Dead Souls", 
showing the result arising from the serf system, which 
drew attention to the error of it as only such a work 
could. Its author Nikolai Gogal, although an older 
writer than either Tourgenief or Tolstoi, was the last 
to be introduced to American readers. His "Dead 
Souls' ' began that revolution which Tounjeuiefs 
••Annals of a Sportsman" aided in bringing to a suc- 
cessful close. His realistic power in depicting men 
and things is remarkable, Neither Tolstoi nor Tour- 
geneif can excel him. Gogal is dear to the hearts of 
the Russians because in spite of the fierce satire that 
cloaked his disgust to the govermental despotism, he 
had full confidence in the eventual independence and 
salvation of the Russian people. 

Gogal, Tourgenief, Tolstoi compose the literary 
triumvirate which has done so much for Russia in its 
long struggle between freedom arid slavery, which is 
still going on. Their works, full of keen satire, ten- 
der love and pity for the people, and grim exposure 
for all the abuses of the empire, are a compendium of 
the internal condition of Russia. Besides having a 
decided historical value, they help and encourage 
others in their efforts in literature, for in Russia it is 
no easy task to undertake such a work. No country 
presents today a wider field for literature yet the ob- 



4 o ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

stacles in the way are so great that it requires^ hero* 
ism of na mean sort to attempt to overcome or even 
face them. 

In Russia life is too serious to countenance thenovel 
of mere amusement. The native who writes speaks 
for the whole compressed anguish of a people in 
chains. "Mere entertainment would be a degrad- 
ing aim for a Russian novelist. It is only by careful 
representation of familiar or possible facts that the 
novel manages to elude repression. Yet even the 
sharpest eyed censor does not read what is written 
between the lines. It is this part, printed as it were 
in invisible ink, that helps to fill out the. terrible pic- 
ture of despair that almost every Russian novel con- 
tains." 

The field of fiction is largely occupied by women. 
In no country are the conditions of literature so fav- 
orable to women as in Russia. No women in the 
world possess such advantages of observation and 
experience. They are born diplomats, and today, 
according to Tourgenief, they are the most danger- 
ous elements of socialism. They have done much in 
bringing the Russian literature to the present position 
it occupies, — that of mouth- piece of the most impor- 
tant movements that are now threatening the relics 
of feudalism. 



THE LOST ART. 



Mattie Detar. 



PHILOSOPHY and science have done much to ad- 
vance the civilization of the world, but hand in 
hand with these, and wielding a quiet but mighty in- 
fluence, the arts have done their work. Which of 
the arts has had the most influence, is a question that 
has been variously discussed and as variously decid- 
ed. Music, sculpture, painting, and each of the oth- 
ers has, in turn, been favored, but one which Holmes 
designates the "noblest, the most important, and the 
most difficult" of the fine arts, has been too frequent- 
ly neglected and slighted. Its influence is felt in the 
family, in the social circle, in business life, and in- 
deed, wherever man is found. 

That it is human nature to talk, is an unquestion- 
ed statement. From the time of Adam till the pres- 
ent day, the world has talked: and there seems to be 
an increase rather than a decrease in the amount of 
time consumed in conversation. The very antiquity 
of the art and the frequency with which it is used, 
should make it a subject of thoughtful consideration. 
Milton once said, "A word has changed a character, 
and a character has changed a kingdom. " 

In the social circle, the power of conversation is 
unlimited. It is here that character is in a great de- 



42 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS 

gree moulded, and the most lasting influence everted. 
One's position in society depends, in a measure, on 
one's conversational powers. Deficiencies in dress, 
looks and manner are forgotten when minds, attracted 
by the magnetism of a kindred thought, are found to 
draw from the same fountain of knowledge, and bar- 
riers, before seemingly impassable, are overcome. 
One writer, in speaking of this great power, says, 
< 'Knowledge is not knowledge till after it is brought 
under the faculties of speech. It is easy to harvest 
knowledge by study but one must have the wind of 
talk to winnow the chaff away; then the precious 
grains of truth and wisdom will be garnered for our 
own and others use. 1 ' 

The opinion that to be able to keep up a constant 
stream of small talk is to be a good conversationalist 
is gaining currency in the social circle to-day. But- 
ler says, "The tongue is like a race horse; it runs 
faster the lighter weight it carries. " 

To be a good listener and to have the faculty of 
drawing from others their thoughts are both requisite 
in good conversation. Holmes, though bright and 
sparkling in conversation, also appreciates the value 
of silence; he says, "Talking is like playing on the 
harp; there is as much in laying the hand on the 
strings to stop the vibration, as in twanging them to 
bring out their music." 

Aside from the benefit of social intercourse, the 
mental powers are more fully developed, and a wider 
and more complete range of information is gained by 



HIGHER CULTURE, 43 

conversation. Why, then, allow such a noble art to 
sink into insignificance, and merely serve as a machine 
by means of which our wants are made known to 
each other, when by cultivation, it may become the 
most refined and elegant of the fine arts? 



:o; 



HIGHER CULTURE, 



Susan A. Doty, 



THIS is pre-eminently an age of progress. The 
present measure of peace and prosperity in the 
social and political world affords unparalleled advan- 
tages for an intellectual and moral development 
which is destined, beyond any present comprehension, 
to revolutionize the world. Assaults against science, 
ethics and religion serve only to strengthen them and 
to stimulate them to greater progress. 

The most perfect fulfilment of man's duty to God, 
to society and to himself is found in a vigorous body, 
a developed intellect and a spirit permeated with the 
catholic Christianity of Calvary. The evolution of 
this trinity in unity constitutes the true, practical and 
philosophical education. 

Can finite mind know what the links may be between 



44 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

the physical, intellectual and spiritual energies? The 
great principles of the development of these powers 
are established on fixed, universal laws. ' A composi- 
tion of matter and force makes up the physical beings, 
yet who can tell what that force is that renews and 
maintains life? The intellect has been aptly compar- 
ed to a century plant in which all its energy is cen- 
tered in one evolution of its expansive powers. It is 
a narrow self-interest that prompts man to seek edu- 
cation for the sake of its quota to temporal prosperity. 
That which mental development is in itself, and that 
which it accomplishes, places it on a far higher plane 
than that of a casual or merely material advantage. 

The elevating and ennobling incentives of true cul- 
ture beget a broadly diffusive spirit of benevolence and 
make man immeasurably more a public benefactor 
than the most intrinsic mechanism of any human 
construction. The influence of Pericles and of Justi- 
nian comes down to us in the realm of state. * 'Ho- 
mer and Horace are still masters of the poetic art." 
Plato's profound thought, emotional purity and noble 
activity is still potent. His philosophy was a com- 
plete and richly endowed humanity, but it was only 
human. 

If the influence of these men has been so great and 
far reaching, what must that be of John Quincy Adams 
and Garfield, of Milton and Bryant, and of Mark 
Hopkins. In state, in poetic art and in philosophy 
they have lived to influence humanity toward Divin- 
ity. 



STRUGGLE, THE CONDITION OF PROGRESS. 45 

This is a day in which science is making great pro- 
gress. Its uniform laws of succession and construc- 
tion are but a revelation of the works of God. Hu- 
man thought, civil liberty, private morals and indi- 
vidual opinions attain their greatest height through 
Christian education. We cannot afford to dispense 
with the legacies of past science, art and literature, 
neither can we afford to miss the ethical pearls that 
come to us from Sinai and Calvary. "The founda- 
tion of all noble morality," says an eminent Scotch 
thinker, "is moral inspiration from within, and the 
feeder of that fountain is God." Gladly should we 
lend our influence and aid to such an education as 
will inaugurate the highest mental intelligence and 
culture. This can come only as the refining and en- 
nobling influences of the universal religion of Christ 
holds complete sway over the hearts of men. 






STRUGGLE, THE CONDITION OF PROGRESS, 



W. C. Harris. 



SINCE Hcmersang of the exploits of Achilles, and 
Virgil lauded the hero of the Trojan War; since 
Herodotus immortalized men in history, and Livy re- 



46 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

counted the valiant deeds of Hannibal and of Hamil- 
car; poets and philosophers, biographers and histo- 
rians have agreed, that success in any line is only at- 
tained by manly, persistent effort. There is help and 
strength in resistance. Were it not for friction, men 
could not advance a single step. The value of cohe- 
sion and adhesion in nature and mechanics is incalcu- 
lable. The tires of life itself are only kept aglow by 
continual struggle against death. 

The progress of the Christian church, the advance- 
ment of nations from weakness to power, the exam- 
pies of men who hive com 3 from poverty and obscu- 
rity to places of usefulness and renown, all teach that 
struggle is a necessary condition to the progress of 
mankind. 

When the church was weak, and its faithful adhe- 
rents were in scattered bands; when they were hunted 
down and slain like wild beasts; when they suffered 
torture and death in the most cruel forms; to human 
eyes the church was near extermination. When out 
of martyrdom and persecution the church took a new 
impulse; when opposition and cruelty fired those re- 
maining with a zeal which meant advancement; the 
evil encountered became a cause for thanksgiving. 

The nations of the earth which have made great ad- 
vancement, are those which have been the scenes of 
terrible conflicts. Had not William the Conqueror 
subdued the seve n kings of Briton, this heptarchy 
might never have been welded into the English gov- 
ernment— desti ned to become Mistress of the World. 



STRUGGLE, THE CONDITION OF PROGRESS. 47 

France was engulfed in a revolution and blood 
flowed like water; and France emerged from the 
blackness of despotism, to the clear light of repub- 
licanism. When the hard fate of tyranny and op- 
pression held sway over sunny Italy; when citizens 
were lashed to death and patriots were entombed in 
loathsome dungeons for the crime of loving liberty; 
there appeared a lad whose soul burned with indigna- 
tion at these sights. Garibaldi determined to free 
Italy. What could the son of a poor seaman accom- 
plish battling with the kings of Europe? Obstacles 
apparently insurmountable electrified his energies. 
Tyranny was throttled, the Pope driven from 
Rome, Italy freed, — the result of persistent effort by 
one man. Germany was but a single power. Bis- 
marck came forward with his continuous and indom- 
itable will, and behold the great German Empire! 

Had not the efforts of the great discoverer been tire- 
less and incessant, who can say when the new world 
would have offered an asylum for the homeless and 
oppressed? The forces attacking the American col- 
onies were powerful. The resistance was long and 
desperate. The progress resulting from the Revolu- 
tionary War will continue through time. When the 
Civil War brought the United States to the brink of 
dissolution, the strife was terrible; but thereby this 
Union was bound by a tie which annually grows 
stronger. 

Of those who have become the most wealthy and 
useful, the majority have arisen through difficulties. 



48 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS, ' 

George Peabody, a groceryman's clerk at nineteen, 
during his life give thirteen million dollars for the 
benefit of his fellow-men. Cornell, a poor mechanic 
at thirty three, and Cornell University at the end of 
his life, — the result of struggle against obstacles. 
Time would be lacking to speak of Lincoln, of Gar- 
field, of Grant and of Jay Gould; of James Watt, 
Stephenson and Howe: of Bayard Taylor, Bryant and 
Horace Greely; of Farragut, Eads, Sheridan and 
Moody; of Thorwaldsen, Machael Angelo and others. 

When the British nation refused Henry Bessemer 
the reward which his first invention deserved, it only 
benefited mankind by spurring this youth on to new 
effort. Had he received the promised three thousand 
dollar salary, the nations might never have known of 
Bessemer pteel. This one invention saved to the 
world, in twenty years, five thousand million dollars. 

The men who have gained success and fame have 
paid for it by hard, honest effort. Had not Gambetta 
struggled with poverty, had he not improved every op- 
portunity, he could not have embraced the grand op- 
portunity of his life. He could not have made that 
bold thrust at the man who had usurped the French 
throne. He could not have restored the republic of 
France. When Daniel Webster was asked how long 
he was in preparing his unequaled reply to Hayne, 
for answer he gave his age, ''Forty eight years, sir. 1 ' 
Alexander Hamilton was a friendless orphan in New 
York City, and Alexander Hamilton became the "Lit- 
tle Giant 1 ' of America. John Quincy Adams encoun- 



STRUGGLE, THE CONDITION OF PROGRESS. 49 

tered more opposition than any politician of his day; 
but many generations will recount the victories won 
by the "Old Man Eloquent.' ' 

The railroad, the steam engine, all improved ma- 
chinery are the results of patient toil and struggle. 
Seldom do men reflect upon the labor and patience 
expended on the greatest utilities they enjoy. The 
invention of the magnetic telegraph cost years of hard 
labor and privation, but its benefit is incomputable. 

Over the towering and untrodden Alps, Hannibal 
made his road to fame. Though the cliffs are pre- 
cipitous, though the ice-bound Alpine heights present 
no resting place for the exhausted climbers, though 
pitfalls abound on every hand, the fertile plains oi 
Italy lie just beyond. 

"Over the Alps lies thine Italy 1 '. To each terrest- 
rial traveler the difficult heights are presented. The 
condition of progress is struggle, effort, honest, hard 
labor. There are no mountainside table-lands upon 
which to make an abode. He who does not advance 
must recede. There are no deep cut tunnels through 
which to shun the heights. Over the difficulty is the 
condition of success. When the college graduate re- 
members that he has only reached the first eminence 
which leads to more difficult heights; when he remem- 
bers that his diploma is only evidence that he has 
tools with which to chisel his way upward, when he 
remembers that the cost of a name is not small; he 
will go forth nerved for the conflict to battle for God 
and the benefit of his fellow-men. 



WHAT PLACE SHALL WE FILL? 



Clara E. Hastings. 



IT has been truly said, and I believe no one will deny 
it, that college influence is second only to home 
influence. Granting this, let us for a moment glance 
at the institutions which wield these two most power- 
ful influences. 

In the home an equal footing is granted to the dif- 
ferent members. They grow together, and when 
they enter college it is upon equal footing. Once 
within the college walls does a radical change take 
place in their relationship? The instructors whom 
our brothers have are our instructors; their studies 
are those which we pursue, and when we leave our 
Alma Mater there is no one to say we do not know as 
much as our brothers know. 

The liberal education which a college gives does 
not fit one for any particular calling. It is only "the 
platform upon which we rear the superstructure." 
Now this platform is just the same for the boy as for 
the girl. Why, then, is there so great need of so 
great difference in the superstructure? Why is it the 
girl asks, * 'After college, what next? Why must we 
advance with fear and trembling where our brothers 
go with steady tread? Is there any point at which 



WHAT PLACE SHALL WE FILL? 51 

humanity can stand still, intellectually, socially, men- 
tally, morally? No; we progress or we retrograde. 
Toward what shall we move? 

In 1847 there were only seven occupations which 
a woman was allowed to enter. Nov^ there are one 
hundred and fifty. But why are so many avenues 
still closed to us which are gladly opened for our 
brothers? You say they are not closed. Well, per- 
haps not entirely so, but, after grudgingly giving us 
permission to enter, you place every conceivable ob- 
stacle in the path way. Courageous indeed is she 
who dares to brave public opinion in so far as to sur- 
mount these obstacles, and one who scorns the opin- 
ion of one's fellow men is in nearly every case scorned 
by them in return. These then are the conditions 
upon which we may enter the professions of our bro- 
thers. This the encouragement that we receive! 
When asked what you would have the girl graduate 
do, you say; "Why, if she must do something let her 
teach school. 11 Just so. But did it ever occur to 
you that not every girl is adapted to school teaching, 
and though she were, that already there are more 
teachers than schools? Suppose then, that she sits 
down with folded hands and "waits for the machine 
that is to carry her to the top of the mountain.' 1 Sha 
is not strong enough, poor thing, to fight life's battles, 
4 'She must find some one to fight them for her." 
But what condemnation follows this course? Ard 
probably this is just condemnation, for it is certainly 
not right that after being educated and fitted to act 



52 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

well her part in the busy world she should become a 
burden to others. 

But you say concerning the different learned pro- 
fessions, "this is man's place; she has no right here, 11 
Are you sure this is man's place? Because it has been 
so long yielded to him you may have grown to believe 
it true. But 3 T ou cannot say at an}? fixed point in wo- 
man's education, « 'So far is good, beyond that is bad. " 

We do not ask — nay, we no not wish, — to take 
man's place. We only ask to be acknowledged as 
competent. We wish to enable ourselves to enter into 
all men's views and thoughts. We wish to live with 
them as rational beings, as classmates in the school of 
life. But we hear you say, "Man can do this work 
better than woman can." Possibly he can now, for 
the girl has had no opportunity of showing what she 
can do and how well she can do it. It is unreasona- 
ble to suppose she can reach the topmost round of the 
ladder at the first trial. 

Would you bid the canary bird cease its song be- 
cause its notes are not as sweet as the notes of the 
nightingale? Would you advise Rora Bouhem to 
drop her brush because she is not to become a second 
Raphael? Would you have us give up in despair be- 
cause we cannot excel in everything? We have no 
idea of doing this. But must we continue to work 
against the obstacles which now impede us, when such 
a trifling act of yours can remove them? Will you 
not help us to hasten the day when, as one has said, 
"We shall see woman, not a dream, not an airy form 



THE INTOXICATION OF POWER. 53 

ha anting the unreal walks of night, to vanish when 
cock crow recalls us to the cares of household life, 
the fields of labor, the paths of effort; no, but an en- 
during, very real, Very practical embodiment of the 
poet's ideal, with new powers and relations, illustrat- 
ing her harmony in, and fitness for, the world which 
is purified and sanctified by her presence." 



:o: — 



THE INTOXICATION OF POWER, 



J. Ernest McAfee. 



THROUGH all time it has been the manifest design of 
the Creator that government should exist; that 
power should be exercised. That Benjamin Harrison 
or Queen Victoria sit where some one ought to sit is 
as evident as that men ought to mingle together in 
social relations. The few are to occupy the positions 
of power while the many are to take the subject's place. 
Control over the fortunes and actions of fellow- 
creatures is a dangerous possession, even for the 
most virtuous. Power is intoxicating. It is a curious 
fact in nature that on reaching a great height one is 
seized with an almost irresistible desire to cast one's 
self down. A desire equally strong urges the enthii 



54 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

siast upward to the height, which once reached be- 
comes that of danger. The head becomes dizzy, the 
mind bewildered, and unless attention can be diverted 
from the abyss below, the result may prove fatal. 

Thus it is that power acts. Desire,- whose enoiv 
mous influence only experience can reveal, tempts the 
power-seeker to struggle on over innumerable diffi- 
culties. It often requires years of toil and waiting, 
years which £eem centuries. At last the position is 
attained. Can the attention be diverted from 
thoughts of himself and the height of the position? 
That is the task for the human mind already dazed. 
The thought of the distance between his' present posi- 
tion and the hole whence he was digged, or, in his 
own estimation, whence he digged himself, proves 
far too bewildering for many. Here intoxication be- 
gins, the intoxication of power. On such a height 
there is small latitude and a stagger must bring with 
it a fall. 

The life of a miser is one of continual defeneration. 
The greed for gain displays itself, at first it may be, 
in a very unobtrusive form, but the passion is there 
and years only add fuel to the flame. Strangely anal- 
ogous is the history of many seeking power, a phan- 
tom as fleeting and unstable as the object of the mi- 
ser's ambition. As time goes on one interest after 
another is crowded from the mind, all giving way to 
the ever-increasing desire for power. 

The desire for power is progressive. It is the seek- 
er's morning glass which soon multiplies itself into his 



THE INTOXICATION OF POWER. 55 

every-ten-minute dram. It is the school boy's sled 
on which he starts down hill, soon to find stopping an 
impossibility. In its power of deception it is like the 
famous mirror of which we read. No more beautiful 
was the homely queen in the mirror than are the pro- 
phetic views presented to the eyes of the bedazed 
power- seeker, 

A century ago a marvelously talented young man 
began to rise to prominence in our government. 
With a reputation untainted and principles of seem- 
ing firmness, he started on his career toward fame 
and fortune. Success in municipal and common- 
wealth preferments brought him into greater and 
greater prominence. At length as a climax to his 
whole public life, he aspires to the President's chair. 
His own hopes and those of his friends seem about to 
be realized. He was almost ready to take his seat. 
But this was not to be. This all-absorbing desire 
for power had acted no differently with him than with 
others. He had exchanged for his power his charac^ 
ter and for principle had substituted policy. So when 
an opponent, in the name of right, steps between him 
and the object of his desire he finds himself ready for 
anything that will lead to a gratification of his desire. 
Aaron Burr challenged and killed Alexander Hamil- 
ton when he was drunk, thoroughly intoxicated with 
his own power. The stagger accompanied the chal- 
lenge and he fell with his foe, fell from the position 
to which he could never again rise. Bright prospects 
had that young man and exceptional abilities, and 



56 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

when the drunkard reeled all administered to his fall. 

Man by nature is selfish. If invested with unlimit- 
ed power he is by nature a tyrant. Men are the op- 
pressors of men. There is nothing against which so- 
ciety or individuals need so much to be protected a 3 
"man's inhumanity to man". 

The life of a nation is but the life of many men. 
The character of the state is but the composite char- 
acter of the citizens. Individual men rise to positions 
of power, become haughty, cruel and proud. Na- 
tions follow in their footsteps. Mohammed, by con- 
quest the most unjust and deeds the most dastard- 
ly and cruel, gained his power, and Moslem Turkey 
^ till holds it. Power, like rum, affects different men 
in different ways. Power makes Turkey cruel and 
oppressive, unscrupulous of others 1 rights— eager to 
grasp everything to herself. 

While in history such cases may seem isolated, yet 
it is sadly true that nations as well as men are daily 
weakening or falling, overcome by exilted position. 
By the unambitious the danger can hardly be ap- 
preciated. When, after da} r s of toil and nights of 
dreaming, the goal is reached, and one stands in the 
position so long desired, and has actually come to a 
realization of his many dreams, then it is the trial 
comes. To realize that one has control to a greater 
or less extent over his fellow-creatures is too danger- 
ous for the majority. The head becomes unsteady in 
in spite of effort to resist. There is no intoxication 
like the intoxication of power. 



A CONSTITUTIONAL VENTURE. 57 

He who attains to a position of power is truly in a 
critical place, and if after years of toil and waiting, 
with a clear eye and a firm hand he takes up the 
reins he has indeed run his course well. As great a 
hero as any who ever fought under the walls of Troy 
is he. He is the true victor! 



:o: 



A CONSTITUTIONAL VENTURE. 



G. K. W. McGee. 



THE inauguration of George Washington witnessed 
the tinal organization of the federal government 
in the American republic. Our national celebration 
of this great event has just passed, and as we revert 
to the two occasions, separated by a century, we can 
but mark the striking contrast between the light 
hearted rejoicing of the one and the fearful anxiety of 
the other. The Constitution was a new venture. 
The colonies had no authority for its adoption. They 
were acting upon no precedent whatever, but were 
going forward amidst innumerable predictions of 
failure. The principle involved was one entirely new 
to statecraft. It was the anomaly of the age, an ex- 
periment of portentous moment. Proceeding from 



58 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS, 

needs and demands felt only then, it could look but 
to the future for sanction. What the verdict of that 
future has beer is a matter of history. 

• A constitution is the fundamental law of a nation.. 
Giving expression to all its enactments it must at all 
times be the tribunal of ultimate appeal. To it, there* 
fore, must be attributed the success or failure of the 
administration system it subserves. To prove the 
stability of this organic law every system must fa i e 
two crucial tests. There are two phases of national 
life and each must give its sanction to a civic polity 
before its final establishment. Peace and conflict are 
widely different. The needs of the one are not the 
needs of the other. Only as a government meets the 
demands of both can it be pronounced successful. 

It is 1860, For seventy years the young republic 
has met every emergency and prospered. But now 
civil dissention is rife in the land. A long disputed 
question has been carried from the forum to the field 
and two vast seel ions are testing its merits by the 
stern logic of battle. Involved in the issue is the ex- 
istence or destruction of the nation. Which shall it 
be? For a time there could be no answer. From out 
the clouds of battle no gleam of hope arose. Destruc- 
tion seemed inevitable. But when at last the smoke 
of conflict lifted, the sun of peace shown not upon a 
nation dissevered and broken, but upon a Union 
intact, inviolate. Far from overthrowing American 
Constitutional government, four years of civil strife 
had shown its stability, strength and the wisdom of 



A CONSTITUTIONAL VENTURE. 59 

its principles, while the nations of the world looked on 
: and wondered. 

But the real test of a constitution lies in its ability 
to provide for prosperous growth. Convulsions are 
but preparations. They are the results of social error 
.and are spasmodic attempts of the bod}' politic to up- 
root defects in its organism. Their mission once fulfill- 
ed, the quiet that follows must reap the benefits of 
their existence. 

The unparalleled growth of the Union, constantly 
giving rise, to new wants and exegencies, causes us to 
grow serious and ponder, as we . take a backward 
glance, whether tbe foundations of government 
were laid sufficiently wide and deep to meet the pres- 
sure of subsequent development. What met the de- 
mands of thirteen colonies of like views and interests 
in 1789 must be entirely inadequate to the wants of 
forty -two states a century later. The logic of gov. 
ernment is rarely carried out and the complication of 
our administrative system makes the problem of equit- 
able legislation doubly troublous to us. 

The constitution extends to all. religious tolerance. 
Liberty of conscience, freedom to think and act in all 
such matters are express provisions. But the consti- 
tution found expression in the demands of a Christian 
civilization, at a time when the body politic was not 
defaced by cancerous growths that threaten to extend 
their roots of corruption throughout its entire frame. 
Today, Mormomism with its subjection to a priesthood, 
and Romanism with its servility to the Pope stand 



6b ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

awful menaces to the government. Both claim th# 
protection of its neutral policy, yet each seeks union 
of church and state. Aggressive, the church of Mor- 
mon exerts a mighty influence upon the plastic West* 
the coming centre of power in the Union. Insidious* 
treacherous* the church of Rome sways the foreign 
masses that daily surge inward. Both strike directly 
at our institutions and each hopes for final triumph, 
Legislation is powerless to check their advance, 
neutrality forbids all interference, and religious toler- 
ance has become a weapon used by the enemies of 
the government for its destruction. 

In the "immigration problem " lurks another evil 
that threatens the national security. The social 
unrests of other nations are mighty repellant forces* 
Peace, plenty and an offer of political and religious 
liberty in our own land are strong attractive features. 
Co operating these influences are a fruitful cause of 
immigration. An enormous tide of humanity daily 
reaches our shores. But ignorant, largely idle and 
with ideas inconsistent with popular government, they 
exert a pernicious influence, and when We consider 
that the power of the government lies in the ballot, 
that whatever corrupts it strikes at the very root of 
its institutions, we recognize our danger. Native 
citizens are growing anxious, aye, solicitous as they 
watch the off-scourings of all nations pouring into the 
land and see the influence hourly exercised by the 
Irish, German and kindred votes. But with the dan- 
ger so imminent, reform is slew and difficult. For* 



A CONSTITUTIONAL VENTURE. 6r 

bearance in the past has given rise to serious com- 
plications. What might, in the beginning, have been 
easily accomplished, perplexes, to-day, the best minds 
of the country. After the lapse of a hundred years, 
in coping with this giant evil, the attempts of states- 
men are weak. 

The perpetuity of the government depends upon 
thp intelligence of its citizens. The power of the bal- 
lot extends to all and is wielded with equal force by 
the enlightened and unlettered. Education of the 
masses is essential to the existence of our republic. 
Ten million freedmen and a large foreign element 
now wield enormous power and where ignorance pre- 
vails right government must cease. The Constitution 
made no direct provision for the education of the 
common people nor enforced it upon the states. To- 
day the need of such provision is imperative and 
everywhere apparent. 

These and other evils have proved menaces to our 
country. But by the adaptability of the Constitution 
they have largely been averted and the inauguration 
of civil and political reforms promises the realization 
of yet loftier attainment. A century has done much 
to test our system and reveal its weakness as well as 
its strength. Its faults, however, pale into insignifi- 
cance in the light of its greatness. No national polity 
bears greater good, bestows higher privileges or im- 
poses lighter burdens. Security to life and property 
could hardly be greater, taxation is at its minimum, 
there is * 'freedom of speech and press", while politi 



62 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

cal and religious liberty are the watchwords of the 
nation. Can we wonder that America is the "asylum 
for the clown- trodden and oppressed of every clime' 1 ? 
The hope of the republic is in the loyalty of the peo- 
ple. Its strength is in their hearts. Enshrined by a 
love of liberty its preservation is assured. The rapid 
growth of % century, that has caused the world to 
wonder, may be taken as a sure prophecy of what is 
yet to follow and today the "star of empire" standing 
directly over our Columbia, proclaims to all the na- 
tions of the earth that "America holds the future 11 . 



:o: 



ENGLAND'S QUAKER OR A TOR. 



Fred. W. McClusky. 



HE is dead. One of the latest representatives of a 
group of orators and statesmen, who have made 
the Victorian era famous, has passed away. Mr. Glad- 
stone only remains in the first rank of English celeb- 
rities in this generation to appropriately pronounce 
a euology on one of England's most manly men, — 
his colleague and friend, John Bright. Mr. Bright was 
a typical Englishman. He was not only typical, but 
unique. With the blood of generations of Noncom- 



ENGLAND' S QUAKER ORATOR. 63 

formists and Quakers coursing thro his veins, his 
rugged and active boyhood days established the foun_ 
dation of that character which exerts such an influence 
on the world to-day. His whole body spoke his very 
life. His broad shoulders, the solid massiveness of 
his masterful individuality, the uprightness of bearing, 
the head and body closely knit — altogether made the 
observer perceive that " here was one in whose armor 
the flaws were few/ 1 

Mr. Bright was an ideal English orator. He had a 
commanding presence, a large head and figure and a 
voice that* was powerful, resonant, and clear. His 
style was pure almost to austerity. Passion never 
mastered it and its superb self-restraint was never 
subdued. Scarcity of a commodity always gives it 
value. His speeches were never frequent. He under- 
stood that great efforts must be made at long intervals. 
While Chatham was majestic, Burke luxuriant, 
Brougham elaborate, there is nothing in all literature 
more admirable than the august simplicity of John 
Bright. And as a statesman, whether in public or 
private life, whether in intercourse with prince or 
peasant, this distinguishing characteristic coupled 
with his great sincerity, gives the key to his enno- 
bling and enduring character. The English press 
says of him without stint, that " he was perhaps the 
only English statesman of the first rank in public 
life whose honesty, whose single mindedness, whose 
rigorous conception of duty, whose sincerity and 
entire devotion to interests other than his own or his 



64 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

party's, have never once been questioned amid all 
the conflicts of a stormy political life." He was a 
man of peace and'always in arms to prevent you from 
from going to war. Take the bombardment of Alex- 
andria. When his renunciation of that battle and his 
position on the Egyptian question meant to break 
with Mr. Gladstone, to whom he was united by almost 
life-long ties, his fidelity to his convictions becomes 
apparent in the following words: " I have borne 
witness against war all my life long, I abhor it. My 
legacy to my children is a message of peace. Do you 
think, do you think at my age I am going to be false 
to all my principles, to go back on all my record, to 
retract all I have said, to sanction such an act as this, 
to leave my children a heritage of shame and dis- 
grace, to leave behind me for them that their father 
was a traitor and a renegade? Never! " 

While peace was part of his being, his patriotism 
was none the les3 ardent. While England 
bows reverently in the simple cemetery at Roch- 
dale, America's tribute should not be forgotten. A 
believer in the enfranchisement of slaves and 
the development of free institutions, his great 
powers were exerted with tremendous effect 
against the popular pro-slavery element in the mother 
country during our great Civil War. Never was his 
courage so severely tested, never was the minority 
more intensely hated. Our gratitude cannot now 
repay the debt which, as a nation, we then incurred. 
Living, his reception would have been our greatest 



POLITICAL RECTITUDE. 65 

delight. Dead, our homage cannot be too publicly or 
solemnly pronounced. Simple in life, he is still less 
pretentious in death. The grassy mound at Rochdale 
may preach the "Quaker orator's noble life 11 
with greater impressiveness than Westminister Ab- 
bey with its sculptured bronze and marble, where are 
entombed the kings, statesmen, poets and heroes of 
England's centuries gone by. A champion of liberty 
democracy, peace and universal brotherhood lies 
buried there, and the trees will bend lovingly over 
the grave of one whose life is consciously complete 
and whose friends and foes unite in exaltation of a 
God-fearing statesman, orator and man, 



:o: 



POLITICAL RECTITUDE. 



M. H. McLeod. 



POLITICAL rectitude is not as common- place a 
term as political corruption. The mere mention 
of the one, on a superficial view, seems to border on 
the idealistic and theoretical; the ether is familiarized 
by its frequent appearance on the pages of all ancient 
and modern histories. . The Roman moralist saw "no 
friendship or faith held sacred in public affairs;" the 



66 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

Greek poet sang of the moral degeneracy of his day; 
and the pessimist of our own worthier generation but 
echoes their sad refrain. 

Notwithstanding the antiquity and persistent vital- 
ity of this cry, our position today is not erratic in 
maintaining the negative. Indeed we may well 
doubt if the history of any age of the world ever jus- 
tified this dictum. From the time of that metamor- 
phosis which changed the garden of Eden into a wil- 
derness, to that day that shall again cause the desert 
to rejoice and blossom as the rose, this world has been 
and will be a continuous scene of transformation: 
and of all the phases of transformation through which 
it has passed, development — development of theories, 
development of principles, development of morals, as 
well as development in the sciences, and arts — is the 
idea which has received more emphasis than any 
other. Now, when this is strikingly true of the pres- 
ent century, may we not seriously question the appro- 
priateness of an undue depreciation of the morality 
of our people, our politics and our country? The ad- 
vocates of these principles have their eyes open to 
every visible form of public cupidity and see nothing 
but utter destitution of probity and good faith. Dis- 
tance lends enchantment to their views of the glories 
of the past, and they readily give credence to the be- 
lief that times are gradually growing worse, that po- 
litical morality is deteriorating and that even the hu- 
man race itself is degenerated. Every honest man 
who seriously £*ives heed to the signs of the times may 



POLITICAL RECTITUDE. 67 

justly accuse them of an oversight in the very first 
steps of their investigation. 

The standard of moral power in our day is higher, 
nobler, purer than ever before Our public press is 
a living attestation to this fact. No comparison can 
be more favorable than that of its present mora] tone 
to its vulgarity and venality at the beginning of the 
century. Since the infancy of our republic public 
sentiment has so elevated itself that it no longer 
breathes the Shibboleth, ''Right or wrong, our party 
still our party.' 1 So permeated with genuine right- 
eousness has it been since the days of Jefferson that 
we need never more fear to see an unbeliever at the 
head of our government. In the days of our forefa- 
thers thwarted politicians had recourse to that relic 
of barbarism — dueling; now even bitter invectives 
draw the anathemas of the public. Then faction, fa- 
vor and interest had the disposal of all dignity and 
confidence, now this has given place to the higher re- 
forms of our day. Compare the discourtesy of John 
Quincy Adams who left the Cipital on inauguration 
day rather than have anything to do with his succes- 
sor, with the courteousness of Grover Cleveland, who 
made the President-elect his guest at the dinner table 
and on inauguration day invited him and his wife to 
lunch. Or still more general, and within the memory 
of us all, the characteristics of the campaigns of 1884 
and 1888, and who can haye the bold effrontery to 
say that public morality, political rectitude, or nation- 
al uprighteousness is deteriorating? 



68 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

These incidents alone show our advancement, and 
their j multiplicity makes us oblivious of them. The 
glow of a taper shows bright amid general darkness 
but the strongest electric light pales before the noon- 
day glare. Other facts confirm our views. The fact 
that we stand today at the head of the roll-call of na- 
tions is an unimpeachable attestation of our growth 
in political rectitude. It is self-evident that nothing 
less than a corresponding increase in our moral pow- 
er has maintained the republic against a constantly 
increasing influx of moral evils from abroad. Had 
not our national uprightness advanced with accelerat- 
ed strides, our country would long ago have suffered 
those evils consequent on national demoralization. 
Turkey, Spain and other once renowned countries 
can attest to the immutability of the laws of nature. 
Had the United States for a hundred years trod the 
path of downward tendancy it would be in the cate- 
gory of those that were but are not. 

National uprightness is in the vau though the line 
of march may sometimes have taken a zig-zag 
course. Looking back, we may indeed find epochs 
over which one would fain throw the mantle of ob- 
livion. The decade preceding the civil war exper- 
ienced a serious degenerac}% and it was only because 
of such a degeneracy that the war was possible. The 
inexorable laws of nature demanded retribution at 
our hand. The evil remedied our character and our 
influence shone forth with a lustre never afterwards 
to be dimmed by relapr-ing into similar errors. 



POLITICAL RECTITUDE. 69 

Since the cry of the pessimist is futile in the face 
of all arguments, and shown to be wholly erroneous, 
it may not be amiss to consider the cause of this an- 
cient belief. Mich of it arises from the fact that we 
feel and see present evils, but not those which belong 
to the past. A sense of present dissatisfaction causes 
us to magnify past virtues. There is also in us an 
inherent inclination to venerate the memory of the 
times and customs of our fathers. The feeling of 
discomfort and depreciation manifested by the mor- 
alists is much akin to that experienced by people in 
their old age when men and things around them 
change. 

As men, as citizens, we are bound to take more than 
a superficial view — bound to acquaint ourselves with 
our true ethical relation to political rectitude. It is 
the vital principle of our government. The very sal- 
vation of our country depends upon its moral power. 
And we have every reason for confidence. From 
that day when "we, the people of the United States 1 ' 
appealed to God for the "rectitude of our cause" to 
this present hour the progress of political uprightness 
has been one of our national characteristics. Pro- 
gress is easier than commencement. {_, Of future ad- 
vancement we have every assurance. Henceforth, 
public morality, political rectitude and national up- 
rightness shall go on hand in hand until we shall 
be in full possession of that perfect righteousness 
that exalteth a natio n. 



SAVONAROLA. 



Sylvia McQuitty. 



■ • T^ESTORE the liberties of Florence. 1 ' This was 
Jl\ what Savonarola, the man of integrity and in- 
dependence even by the side of a royal deathbed, de- 
manded of Lorenzo the Great. These words were 
spoken in the city of Florence about the time Colum- 
bus brought to the Old world the fact of the New* 
For ten centuries an ecclesiastical institution had been 
growing so like to that of Rome that by the fifteenth 
century it had densely clouded the intellect and con- 
science of mankind. The effect of its tyranny was to 
deaden man's hopes, aspirations and all progressive 
thought. 

The people of Florence were on the verge of moral 
destruction when Savonarola, the hero martyr of 
liberty, sounded the note of reformation. He comes 
to them fr6m amidst influences that seem to give him 
a singular fitness for this work of emancipation; 
From his earliest year3 he seemed to grasp the great- 
ness of the responsibility that comes with life. Such 
was his mental development that he seemed to have 
grown to manhood ere his boyhood was passed. So 
closely did he walk with his Maker that from Him he 
imbibes the conception of the grandeur of the human 
soul. The consciousness of this value in man for 



SAVONAROLA. 71 

which Heaven thought enough to give a dying Christ, 
this it was that brought the renaissance of thought 
and act into the life of the bunian race. It is the re- 
alization of this thought that brings out the refor mer 
in every age. The integrity in the heart of this boy 
forbids his approval when he observes the glittering 
golden pageants of the great ducal festivals, for he 
knows that this booty has been gathered by the rob- 
bery of widows and orphans. While in the monas- 
tery in Bologna, he devoted his best energies to the 
study of Thomas Aquinas, or the force of religion, and 
to Aristotle, or the force of reason — two essentials to 
the genuine reformer. 

Now, the times demand a preacher, one who will 
be more than a dealer in texts, more than a mere rit- 
ualist. There Is need of a man "so radical that he 
will be a conservative of all that is worth conserving". 
Savonarola is the preacher whose need is felt; a poet, 
feeling the matchless rythm of the universe; a proph- 
et, as every true preacher is; his heart bursting out 
with the glory of the living God, his power is irresisti- 
ble. But not for those of Lorenzo's court .is this elo- 
quence; they are too much engrossed in amassing 
wealth to notice the signs of the times. Lorenzo and 
his brilliant, but fearful money making schemes 
are fully known to Savonarola, and he also realizes 
that the church and state are matched in corruption. 

The audiences which throng to hear him have be- 
come so vast that at last he enters the greatest cathe- 
draL Under its mighty dome, Savonarola, sure of 



72 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

himself and God, fulminates against the abuses of the 
times. He even dares to attack the vices of Lorenzo 
and of the church. The Duke perceiving his grow- 
ing power and influence decides that he must get 
Savonarola under his "hand of policy," but all his ef- 
forts in this line prove futile. 

But the hour comes, when the dying Lorenzo sum- 
mons this preacher to his bedside, — the one man who 
had been brave enough to reprove him. Hearing cf 
his fearful condition Savonarola hastens to him. Lo- 
renzo accepted Christ and promised to restore the ill- 
gotten gains; but Savonarola, the lover of freedom, 
wa3 a statesmen as well priest, and he then demand- 
ed that Lorenzo ' 'restore the liberties of Florence." 
The dying prince scornfully turns away his face and 
died without absolution. Piero de Medici, his son, 
succeeded him. 

And now, news comes that Charles VIII. of France 
is coming over against the land of Michael Angelo and 
Dante. Piero, with no statecraft, gives up all resist- 
ance. All at once the raging Florentines seem to be 
possessed with just one thought, and that, that they 
hate the Medici and want a republic. The day is 
come for a strong hand; where is it? A tempest 
comes from the North in Charles VIII. ; another rages 
here in Florence. Who is the man for the moment? 
Girolamo Savonarola, the priest, becomes the ruler of 
the hour. With one hand upon those citizens, and 
the other upon the French King, with sermons grand 
and deep in the radicalism, which teaches the "democ- 



SAVONAROLA 73 

racy of Christ and the righteousness of the Son of 
God, 1 ' with this power the city is held for the mo- 
ment and so perfectly is the control sustained that 
Charles VIII enters Florence a visitor, without a drop 
of blood having been shed. 

This was in 1494 when Savonarola met the revolu- 
tion of the Dark Ages. There he stood with no polit- 
ical influence save that of uprightness, genius and the 
power of a great idea and demanded a "universal 
government". He believed all men to be equal be- 
cause Christ died for all. But this growing power of 
republicanism has aroused the Pope of Rome. Seve- 
ral times he summoned Savonarola to him, but failing 
in his attempts to get him to Rome he at last sends to 
him the cardinal's red cap. One of the grandest 
hours in the history of liberty is when that dauntless 
champion of freedom sent back this reply, "Tell the 
Pope that I will have no red cap, but a red hat dyed 
in my blood, the red hat of martyrdom." Amidst the 
crackling of fagots the bishop pronounces the words 
of excommunication, "Thee I now separate from the 
church militant and from the church triumphant." 
Savonarola speaks from his throne of flame, "church 
militant. yes, church triumphant, 'tis not yours to do." 



4EGEAN WRITERS. 



Jean ie M. McRuer. 



AMONG the beautiful islands that arise from the 
blue waters of the iEgean, we find those of Pat- 
mos and Scio. Beside the beauty and grandeur, with 
which nature has endowed these islands, there clings 
to them the charm of historical and poetical associa- 
tions. 

Who is not acquainted with the history of the life 
passed on the lonely island of Patmos? And as the 
the waves dash high on the rocks of Scio, they re- 
bound and find a ready response as did the waves of 
oenturies ago, in the long, resounding lines of Homer. 
History tells us that on the isle of Scio, Homer wrote 
the Iliad, and the Bible tells us that John was exiled 
to Patmos. From this lone isle comes the Revelation, 
that sweet message from the Prince of Peace. From 
Scio comes that majestic Iliad that tells of wars and 
superstitions, when Greeks met Trojans in deadly 
combat until the very ground was bathed in human 
blood; for the goddess was called to "sing the wrath of 
Peleus 1 son, Achilles.'" 

Shall it seem irreverent to draw comparison be- 
tween the Revelation and the Iliad, or even dare to 
place any compositions, although it be one of the 
greatest master-pieces of genius, with what we know 



iEGEAN WRITERS. 75 

to be inspired? Yet daily do learned men say that 
our sacred books are inferior, that the Greek poets 
were deserving of far more honor than the Hebrew 
prophets, that the voice from Scio spoke in sweeter 
tones than the voice from Patmos, that no book ever 
wrought a stronger influence on human life than the 
Iliad. We admit its strange charms and even at this 
distant age lives are passed in preparing new editions 
and discovering new beauties in its magnificent verse. 
But have not lives been spent too in the study of that 
unfathomable mystery — the Revelation? Was it the 
Iliad that moulded the lives of such men as Calvin, 
Knox and Luther? 

In the very beginning of the holy book we are 
brought into the presence of the One who is King. 
"Behold he cometh with the clouds; and every eye 
shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him. 11 
And while the blind Homer walked the shore listen- 
ing to the sound of the angry waves, the inward ears 
caught every chord of the wondrous harmony of the 
rolling waters. But the sweet voice could not be 
heard above this tossing saying, Peace be si ill, for the 
soul of the blind poet was as blind as his eyes, and he 
chanted his song to the gods that ruled the deep. While 
John of Patmos hears the calm clear voice saying, 
4 'Fear not, I am with thee. 11 Is not the Iliad a noble 
farce in which Gods from Olympus and kings of 
earth have for ages skillfully played their parts; 
does it not pass before us as a mighty tableau, whose 
figures are but phantoms? Can we find any stamp of 



76 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

reality that is so wonderfully brought in the Revela- 
tion? For the latter is not an idle story but the ex- 
perience of those who have lived and died, those of 
whom the angel said, "These are they which came 
out of great tribulation and have washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 
What host composes the heavenly chorus but those 
who have been redeemed from the earth ! 

Do we not find that the Iliad owes its impressions 
to the creeping terror which it inspires, as if the gods 
were following hard on the track of crime. But 
could any coming punishment be equal to that in 
which the angel was commanded to reap for the 
harvest is ripe, and to cast the vine of the earth into 
the wine press of God's wrath? And is the master 
poem even from the "prince of poets" still grand when 
the heavenly band sings the song of Moses and the 
Lamb? Mighty is that poem that has made the name 
of Homer immortal, but far more wonderful and mys- 
terious is that heavenly message telling us that life is 
something more thac a song. And when the angel 
that stands with one foot on the land and one on the 
sea, shall declare time to be no more, the mysteries 
of the book will be unrolled, for the Lamb has pre- 
vailed to open the seven seals. 

And the beautiful book closes not like the paltry 
Ilian story, not with sa*d voices rending the air, weep- 
ing for fallen heroes, when the dirge is echoed and 
reechoed and the days are clouded. But it closes 
giving us a vision of our own future home where the 



THE COST OF DISTINCTION. 77 

same Lord that was so dear to the lone exile of Pat- 
mos is the King, and the beautiful river flowing 
out of the throne of God! A heavenly chorus — how 
sweet, how vvonderful their song, as it floats through 
the heavenly gates bidding you and me welcome, "for 
the Spirit and the Bride say, come." 



:o:- 



THE COST OF DISTINCTION. 



Ida May Muir, 



A DESIRE for distinction is natural toman. He is 
continually pressing toward sompthing higher 
than he has ever attained. There are few who have 
never been actuated by a spirit of competition. 
Strengthened by hope and expectation, this spirit 
becomes the great motive power which keeps the 
world in action. Did not this natural rivalry exist 
among men, little progress would be made in the 
world, little advancement in science, literature or 
art. Many have excellent opportunities and brilliant 
prospects, yet few rise to eminence. Is it because 
they are unwilling to devote themselves to long years 
of labor and hardship? Greatness is attained only by 
persevering industry. " Tis hardship, toil; 'tis sleep- 



g£ ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

less nights, and never resting days; 'tis pain; 'tis dan- 
ger; 'tis affronted death; 'tis equal fate for all, and 
clanging tortures which rear the mind to glory, that 
inspire the noblest virtues and the gentlest manners." 
All the men of great genius of whom we read were 
energetic workers. Mozart, who poured his soul out 
mid such abundant melodies, declared "work is my 
chief pleasure." Raphael, so admired and envied as 
the prince of painters, did not allow his brush to 
hesitate. Of his many famous paintings, his last 
production was the grandest and most beautiful. 
Michael Angelo devoted nineteen years to the task 
of completing the church of St. Peter. "Those of 
temples old or altars new stand alone with nothing 
like them worthiest of God, the holy and the true." 
There are others, though not endowed with such ex- 
ceptional genius, who have risen to eminence through 
their perseverance, application and industry. It has 
been said of Disraeli that he reached' success only 
through a succession of failures. His earlier pro- 
ductions were ridiculed and condemned, and al- 
though mortified at his failures, he only grew more 
determined to succeed, and at last he attained the 
fame so diligently and earnestly sought after. The 
celebrated missionary David Livingstone encoun- 
tered numerous difficulties during his early years, 
and when he reached manhood he attributed to the 
discipline of those days of hardship all his success. 
Bacon, Howard, Johnson, Washington and Garfield 
devoted their wisdom, time and energies for the good 



THE TYPICAL WARRIOR. 79 

of their fellow-men and by their labor they have won 
lasting renown. 

Whatever aptitude for peculiar pursuits nature be- 
stows upon her children, she conducts to honor and 
distinction none but the studious and industrious. 
Those who win golden laurels and whom nations de- 
light to praise are the defenders of right and truth, 
the active, virtuous and temperate. Some fool-hardy 
adventure or inhuman deed may render one notori- 
ous, but only true worth and noble achievement can 
secure lasting renown. 

Right and virtue must prevail. Better is it to re- 
main forever unknovt n than for empty notoriety to sac- 
rifice all that is true, manly and good. The names that 
shine brightest on the pages otf history and are dearest 
to the human heart are of those who by untiring ef- 
fort have climbed the ladder of success and whose 
achievements have been a rich heritage to mankind. 



:o: 



THE TYPICAL WARRIOR. 



Agnes Lee Reed. 

THERE are oft in the realms of fiction 
Pure blossoms like violets low, 
Too fragile for life's stern affliction 
They decline in the wild storm's blow. 



8o ORATIONS AND ESSAYS 

But found on the scroll of history, 
From the grand old dominion state, 

There's a name with no cloud or mystery, 
Save the frown of an orphan's fate. 

No deed or romance of this brave son 
Gives color and charm to his youth, 

But mellowed like that of Washington, 
It glows with the halo of truth. 

A studious mind, with purpose real, 
In class he was thorough tho slow; 

O'er latent power triumphed worthy zeal 
And aversion for sham and show. 

No wondrous Aladdin lamp e'er shone 
Freely shedding its golden lore; 

For science her secrets would keep alone, 
And dearly she prizes her store. 

But mighty genius, the lever strong, 

'Gainst caste, custom and pride or birth, 

Can make us list to the ploughman's song, 
Or value man's intrinsic worth. 

Dark and lowering the threat' ning cloud — 

Our country was shrouded in night, 
When Jackson to war's stern mandate bowed, 
Confident that his cause was right. 

The laurel of victory his crown 
From battle's awful shot and fire, 

Where he, the ' 'Stonewall" of war's renown 
Was undaunted through conflict dire. 



THE TYPICAL WARRIOR. 81 

O'er snow-capped hill and rocky glen, 

Banks treacherous, icy and steep, 
He led those hungering suffering men 

'Cross Alpine trials, through rivers deep. 

Falcon-eyed as he swept along, 

What could the whirlwinds course e'er stay, 
Swift as the rock of the legend's song 

An invincible bird of prey. 

In open attack, or peril'd wood, 

His brigade was the army's van; 
Their leader — this type of man-hood 

On its noblest and greatest plan. 

Of Spartan courage and iron will 

A Leonidas to die, not fail, 
That southern pass in defending still, 

Thermopylae, his own dear vale. 

Who knew him loved him most and best, 

Magnanimous, gentle and grand, 
All promptly heeded his last request, 

Waiting not that he might command. 

His slaves with prophecy would declare, 
When their " massa " had plann'd for fight, 

Noting how oft he had knelt in pray'r 
In the still hours of sombre night. 

Ere the blight of dark war's cruel face, 
And destructive, blood-stained hand, 

How oft with love at the throne of grace, 
He had plead for this sable band! 



82 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

And oft on the holy Sabbath day 
He had taught them the way of life, 

Ere the angel. Peace, had turned away 
From th3 terrible scene of strife. 

Said the noble Lee, with eyes grown dim, 
When came the tidirgs of Jackson's harm, 

As the sense of the loss swept o'er him, 

"Lost has the South her strong right arm.'" 

For reverent Jackson's faith and prayer 
Moved the arm of Omnipotence. 

More real to him than refreshing air 
This tower of refuge and defence. 

Meekly departed this earnest life, 
Calm, tearless, but tender and kind, 

Grieving only o'er the chaos and strife 
For those who must linger behind. 

Great in peace and on battle-field, 

But in death more heroic still; 
A Christian who could sweetly yield 

Resignation to God's great will. 

Where flowers their sweet fragrance blended, 
A mourning South laid him to rest, 

Enrapt in the flag he'd defended, 
With the honor of all the great blest. 

O closed is the war forever, 

Does the thought mar our nation's bliss, 
That time has served only to sever 

The wide breach of our love's abyss. 



THE TYPICAL WARRIOR. 83 

Could Cutius the yawning chasm fill, 

In the day of tradition's lore, 
Our Jackson's virtues should closer still 

Bind the Union from shore to shore. 

The northern lily, so cold to woes, 

Droops her haughty head low and weeps 

Before the tomb of this southern rose, 
Where the flower of chivalry sleeps. 

O benevolent, blue-eyed Jackson, 

Of the lofty, majestic brow, 
Rare among ejfrher Greek or Saxon 

Are thy peers, or thine equals now! 

The Coliseum, the pride of Rome, 

Flings its bold defiance at time; 
Firmly built from corner stone to dome, 

Austere, stately, erect, sublime; 

So thou, our typical warrior bold, 
Has character's beams reared high, 

While age after age thy name will hold 
With those destined never to die! 

Bright through dark night of a cause long lost 

This Virginian star shines still, 
With gleams that purchase distinction's cost, 

A city on some high hill. 

Long since in that haven celestial 

He has Lincoln greeted with love; 
Forgotten is war terrestrial 

In that harmony glad above. 



GOD REVEALED IN HIS WORKS. 



Francis Rundus. 



GOD spake, and this vast universe was ushered into 
existence. We may read tjie account of this 
great creation in the unmistakable language of nature, 
as Gud himself recorded it in the earth and sky. Let 
us follow the footsteps of our Great Teacher with rev- 
erent awe, and think his though t§ after Him. The 
infinite immensity of God's work is only a faint 
shadow of his character. We know* a man by his 
works; as the faculties of man need a constant 
occupation, so the divine attributes sought expression 
in the work of creation and preservation. God's 
power called forth the universe with all its forces; 
His wisdom planned the wonderful mechanism of cre- 
ation; His faculties of art and beauty made the lovely 
rainbow, the delicate flower and all the beauties of 
nature. But in all creation nothing responded to his 
great heart of love, and so "God made man after his 
own image." 

Science leads us to presume, that before this uni- 
verse was created, all substance existed in the form 
of a nebulous mass of gaseous matter. The divine 
will was the evolutionary force which developed the 
world from a nebulous mass, through successive 
cosmical states, to its present condition. We see 



GOD REVEALED IN HIS WOKKS. 85 

only a glimpse of the numerous forces at work in the 
universe, but all these different phenomena are only 
different manifestations of the one controlling energy. 
This divine force finds a physical expression in the 
form of gravity and molecular attraction, giving 
location and shape to all things. A still higher grade 
of force is the vital energy, which is manifested in the 
vegetable and animal life, giving growth and form to 
existence. Above this there is a higher energy still 
— the nervous force which controls the locomotive 
powers of animals. The mental faculty which is a 
characteristic of man, is a power which enables us to 
pass rapidly through the heavens to systems of stars 
so distant that their light must travel a million years 
before it can reach our earth. By means 6f ; the 
spectroscope, the mind can analyze the distant nebu- 
lae; and by the use of the telescope, can penetrate 
beyond the galaxy; so that we may presume other 
galaxieVexist in the infinite space beyond. Above 
all these forces is the spiritual power, by which a 
man is bornihto a new world, infinitely more glo- 
rious than our earthly habitation. 

■Although the mind cannot penetrate beyond the 
spiritual, yet we may presume that millions of higher 
forces are at work beyond our knowledge. Higher- 
orders of beings may exist, with locomotive powers 
of a higher degree, traveling with a rapidity beyond 
our comprehension. We are at present in the mid- 
dle link of an endless chain, extending into infinity 
on either side. Ot\ one hand is the inferiority cul* 



86 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

min a ting in the atom, —a miniature infinity, with 
qualities unknown and unknowable, embracing hid- 
den worlds of wonder. On the other hand is the 
spiritual world, enshrouded in transcendent glory, in- 
habited by beings of a higher order and different bod- 
ily construction. Paul was "caught up to the third 
heaven, and heard unspeakable words not possible 
for man to utter. 1 ' That which we know is only a 
link in the infinite chain. God's powers are unlim- 
ited. He can analyze the minute atom, and fathom 
its mysterious depths; He can control the universe, 
and govern the spiritual forces which shape the des- 
tiny of men. 

Not only is God infinitely powerful, but he is infin- 
itely wise. He is the author of all the sciences; and 
the source of all knowledge. He planned the arch- 
itecture of the earth and its creation. 

But this universe may be only one department of 
the great workshop of the divine mind. Millions of 
worlds, more wonderful than our own, may now be 
in process of making. God's inventive powers are 
never exhausted; he is always something new, the 
like of which never existed. No two creatures are 
alike; no leaf was ever made like any other. God 
never repeats; when He destroys a thing, He never 
restores it to existence again. There is a distinct 
plan for every life; every creature has its own pecul- 
iar qualities. God's bounty and care provides nour- 
ishment, and protects all creatures; He even guides 
the flight of a little bird. 



GOD REVEALED IN HIS WORKS 87 

God is a god of progress; one thing is destroyed 
only to make way for something better. Every age 
is followed by a better age. There is no limit to pro- 
gress; a million years from the present, creation 
will still be advancing with rapid strides to perfec- 
tion. But creation can not in itself get perfect: an in- 
finite variety could not make creation complete. 
Something is always lacking: but present imperfec- 
tion implies perfection somewhere. God alone can 
supply this want; he is the perfect fulness of all things. 
In him every pain finds relief: every sorrow, comfort: 
every need, a supply. The fact that som ething is 
wanting, implies that something must exist to relieve 
that want: for how could we desire that which is not. 
The unity of Divinity is seen in the great plan which 
is a shadow of him who made it, and which plainly 
shows that he is one God. Every thing is only a part 
of the one great structure which is in building through 
all eternity. The fact that all things are harmonized 
into one brotherhood, and that all forces work togeth- 
er under one law is the evidence of one ruling hand. 

The history of this world and its life is only the 
fulfilment of a plan which was laid before the uni- 
verse was created. Every age bears prophetic marks 
of a better age to come. Great preparations were 
made for every new form of life, and all these prepar- 
ations culminated in a paradise prepared for the com- 
ing of man. 

God never changes his plans: nothing happens at 
random; but all was decreed from the beginning 



8S ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

And so from the broad heavens above, and from the 
vaulted treasures of the earth, we may read, that 
God is infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his good- 
ness. 



BRIDGING THE GULF. 



Luther M. Scroggs. 



OVER an abyss of three hundred feet, in the State 
of Virginia, there exists a Natural Bridge. Upon 
it thousands pass from side to side of the mighty 
chasm. It is a marvelous freak of nature. There is 
a gulf which nature has not made and for which she 
has furnished no bridge. 

From one side comes the sneer, "The Bible does 
not harmonize with the latest scientific discovery — so 
much the worse for the Bible. n The reply is echoed 
back, "The statements and results of science do not 
harmonize with the Bible — so much the worse for 
science." All truth must ever be in harmony. Be- 
tween true .science and genuine religion rupture is 
impossible, but dogmatic assumptions pass for reli- 
gious opinions, and crude speculations are brought to 
the altar of learning and christened science, and so 



BRIDGING THE GULF. 89 

separation begins. The schism does not seem great, 
but religion dogmatizes and distrusts, science specu- 
lates and sneers and so the gulf is widened. 

A great chasm had opened in a public place in 
ancient Rome. Vast heaps of rubbish are thrown 
into it. The sooth sayers declared that it will never 
be filled until the most precious thing in Rome has 
been sacrificed. The gallant Curtius deeming the 
bravery of the Roman youth most precious, rode full- 
armed into the yawning fissure, and it closed at once. 

Such a sacrifice is touching and poetic, but it will 
not fill the gulf between science and religion. Hack- 
neyed maxims and pious saws will not avail. If the 
deluded Christian casts himself into the abyss he will 
find to his terrible cost that the stoiy of Curtius is 
only a myth. 

Napoleon's cuirassiers are making a desperate 
charge on the field of Waterloo. Unseen across their 
path lies the sunken road of Ohain. Rank after rank 
plunges into the fatal ditch. Few survive the deathly 
ride, but what a bridge was theirs! May the chasm 
between science and religion never be thus filled. 

Another bridge must span this gulf. The materials 
of the bridge must be well hewn and thoroughly test- 
ed — granite facts of science and religion's Parian 
marble — religious truths which can be scientifically 
demonstrated, and scientific truths which religion 
does not dispute. Science demonstrates a great First 
Cause'; Religion says, "In the beginning God — " 
Science acknowledges the reign of law. Religion 



9 o ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

bows in humility and love to the Great Lawgiver. 
Science says that nature punishes all violations of her 
laws. Religion declares that God will punish all 
transgression. 

Perfect honesty is absolutely essential to the suc- 
cessful builder. To find out " whether these things 
are so" requires Berean fairness and diligent search. 
What has religion gained from science? Religious 
reverence has been deepened and made more real. 
If there was one David who could say, "The heavens 
declare the glory of God," there are many today who 
can look upward in devout reverence and say with 
Kepler, "O God, I think Thy thoughts after thee." 

Science has taught religion to reason by the induc- 
tive method. It has removed her burden of super- 
stition. Analogical science has almost demonstrated 
that there is a spiritual law in the natural world. 

It has made religion more practical and humble. 
The old school-men would discuss for days, "How 
many angels can stand upon the point of a needle? 1 ' 
The religious world today is asking, "How many 
men can we penetrate with the Gospel?" Dogmatic 
popes once attained infallibility by a simple ipse dixit, 
but childlike confessions of ignorance have character- 
ized the princes of science. Science has taught re- 
ligion more devotion to truth for its own sake. Reli- 
gion has learned not to cling to doctrines merely be- 
cause they are useful or rather she is learning that 
only truth can be useful. 

But has science gained nothing from religion? 



BRIDGING THE GULF. 9 r 

The revival of learning began in a Christian country. 
Christianity and euiture hav3 always gone hand in 
hand. The narrow path of righteousness has been 
widened into "the royal road of learning.' ' Men like 
Agassiz and Herschel and Winchell have seen most 
clearly through nature for they have been through to 
nature's God. A skeptical Fichte is compelled to ad- 
mit that. "We and our whole age are rooted in 
the soil of Christianity and have sprung from it." 
It has exercised its influence in the most manifold 
ways upon our culture, and we should be absolutely 
nothing of all that we are, if this mighty principle 
had not preceded us." It is Christianity alone which 
has solved the dark problem of life with its "warp 
and woof of mystery and death." 

The gains gave beeen mutual. Religion has been 
the conservator of science — science the haud-maid of 
religion. Each has corrected the other, but still 
much remains to be chiseled away. Religion must 
lose her suspicion of science. Science must cease to 
sneer at religion. But can they ever be reconciled? 
What bond can join the natural to the supernatural? 
Religious thinkers and devout scientists with one 
voice reply, "The Bible." 

The old Bible of the Reformation: proof against 
anathema and fagot: what "sweetness and light' 1 ! 
what wonderful power! Fossilized? 'Twill be all the 
stronger for that. Unchain the ponderous tomb 
The stone which the builders rejected shall be the 
key- stone of the arch. 



02 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

The gulf has its bridge, — the thoroughfare of sei- 
ence,— the high-way of Holiness. 



:o: 



THE MIDDLE AGES: HIIDEBRANDOF THE VATICAN. 



Harvey M. Shields. 

HISTORY has its epochs. None is more interesting 
to the student than that ealled the " Middle 
Afres/ 1 None is more obscure. From th3 creation 
master minds had marked the night of time. Cresar 
came, a shining comet, waiting the years of Him who 
holds man's destiny in haim; there had not failed 
those who traced his orbit. 

The Star of Bethlehem arose, heralding the approach 
of the King of Nations, and inspired astronomers had 
watched to reeord the phenomena. But there came 
a time when, only from ail occasional rift in the dark- 
ness, could the historian see to use his pen. The 
ancient city of the Hebrews was sacked. The fathers 
of Christendom went out upon the hill-tops, and, 
peering through the smoke of her ruin, saw a cloud 
like the hand of man. spreading for a storm of human 
shame and national crime There had been a long 
burst of light. Rome had risen and her conquests 



THE MIDDLE AGES; HILDEBRAND. 93 

had spread a kind of civilization. But her day gave 
place to greater darkness. Providence had decreed 
that the dawn of these latter centuries should follow 
the darkest hour; that the night-time of the Middle 
Ages should precede a day of triumph for Christian 
civilization. 

With unslaked curiosity we look into the unknown 
of the Middle Ages. Few lights illumine the shadow. 
Yonder is Mohammed with sickly pallor reflecting 
horrible woes of ruined myriads. Yonder Charle- 
magne, reclaiming for a time the failing powers of 
civilization, builds an empire, in purity of policy and 
legislation, surpassing the administration of Rome. 
But when the great mind ceased to work at its Crea- 
tor's bidding, this body politic fell into decay. 

And there were other forces at work, whose loss 
would have been more disastrous. Had it not been 
for Saint Auselm fearlessly inculcating the Mediaeval 
Theology; had it not been for Saint Bernard, togeth- 
er with the reclaiming influence of monachism 
hitherto uncorrupted; had it not been for Aquinas, 
with the prevailing scholastic philosophy, fine of fab- 
ric though it was; had it not been for Thomas a'Bee- 
ket, clothed with almost unlimited prelatical poorer; 
had it not been for the feudal system, elevating wo- 
man to a position recognized, woman without whom 
in her place of honor, every age is and must be a 
howling pandemonium; had it not been for the 
crusades reviving yet blasting the very flower of the 
populace; had it not been for William of Wykeham, 



9 ¥ 4 -- ORATIONS AND ESSAYS; 

preserving somewhat of the old spirit by awakening 
,jiu interest in architecture; had it not been for, John 
Wycliff, "the morningstar of the Reformation," ris- 
ing from the darkness; had it not been for these 
agents and agencies, the gloom of the Middle Ages 
had been Egyptian night. 

But there was another more potent than these com- 
bined. It was for Charlemagne to check Moslem 
fury when it came. He met army with army. But 
when in the. corruption of people and clergy, state 
and church, it was necessary that spiritual power 
should clash invisible weapons with temporal rule, 
another man was at his post of duty: that man, yea, 
more than man, was Hildebrand of the Vatican. He 
saw the structure of European policy rotting in plank 
and pillar. He must remove the cause. It was an 
enormous task. He was not original and saw his 
weakness. But he was strong of character and knew 
it. He faced the issue with eye unquailing. 

Henry the Feurth, of Germany, was the greatest 
prince of Europe. If he were made to feel the 
Church's power, the victory is won. Temporal will 
be suppliant at the feet of spiritual power. He stood 
to count the cost. He looked into the halls of com- 
ing time and saw nations gathering in peace and 
happiness, all depending on the discharge of his duty. 

Hildebrand felt the future of Europe weighing up- 
on his shoulders. 

The lamented Arnold fell from honor for paltry 
gold. The force of his temptation was to Hildebrand's 



THE MIDDLE AGES; IIILDEBRAND. 9 s 

as a child's strength to the might of Atlas. Like Mo- 
hammed, on his right hand was the Vatican, like the 
Sun bidding him "Stop, 11 on the left, the honors of a 
eorrapted state, like the Moon commanding, "Halt. 11 
Disobedience would cost him popular esteem and per- 
haps, life. He saw it with the naked eye in present 
time, and almost lost his balance. He viewed it in 
the lenses of a great Beyond and cast the die. He 
would do his duty or perish. 

In the presence of the nations he stood to hurl his 
anathemas at the greatest prince of Europe. In the 
face of an onlooking world he excommunicated Henry 
the Fourth. Duty was performed, but cost him a 
Pope's position. The aged man was driven from cas- 
tle to convent and exiled from his native land. He 
thought his life had been wasted and his trust in God 
misplaced. He had been over-zealous for the restor- 
ation of a ruined church; But had he failed ? No, 
Heldebrand! Alexander's conquest was great; only a 
raindrop tinged with ambition. Yours was greater; 
pure and ponderous glacier, glistening in eternal sun- 
light. Caesar conqu Bred the world but could not con- 
quer self. You were without a flaw of selfishness. 
When the crisis came, at every cost, you raised an 
jron will and shattered the pomp of kings to atoms. 
The effect will last as long as earth. 

You showed mankind that spiritual could and must 
master temporal powder. You set an ex amp leof unsel- 
fishness. You displayed how man's will approaches 
the Infinite, when inspired with a conviction of duty. 



96 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

Hildebrand, mind of minds, Pope of Popes, you did 
not fail. You fought a fight and gained the victory. 



:o: 



JOHN MARSHALL; THE EXEMPLARY JUDGE* 
J. Miller Smith. 



THE recent deaths of Morrison R. Waite and Stan- 
ley M. Matthews have awakened in the American 
people a deep appreciation of the services and ability 
of our great jurists. We may well be proud of those 
noble characters, those men of rare endowments and 
great erudition who have adorned our judiciary. 

In the American republic the office of Chief Justice, 
in honor, is inferior to none; in dignity and import- 
ance, is superior to all others. From Jay to Waite 
our justices have been able lawyers and farseeing 
statesmen. But foremost of all our jurists stands 
John Marshall. 

Previous to his time American constitutional 
law was, by necessity, to lawyers trained in the 
common law and in the British statutes, a new 
science. The establishment of the United States gov- 
ernment was a novelty. It was a splendid but a per- 
ilous experiment. Contention and litigation every- 



JOHN MARSHALL; THE EXEMPLARY JUDGE. 97 

where prevailed. In the midst of that critical period 
of doubt and danger, the office of Chief Justice became 
vacant and upon President Adams devolved the grave 
responsibility of appointing a man to the important 
position. There was little need of hesitation. Behold- 
ing the most brilliant of records, the President con- 
ferred the honor upon John Marshall. 

The 31st of January, 1801, the day of this appoint- 
ment marks an epoch in the political and judicial 
history of our country. Then began the era of Amer- 
ican jurisprudence. 

There were then no beaten paths to justice. Like 
the sturdy pioneer of our western wilderness Marshall 
had to clear his way through a pathless forest. He 
had no guide but his instinctive resolution, no help 
but the resources of his native genius and sagacity. 

The American people in seeking freedom from En- 
glish oppression seemed doomed to sink into a domes- 
tic bondage far more appalling. Complications not 
only new but complex and entangled confronted our 
national court. Thirteen distinct governments with- 
in a government! Claims of States not against each 
other only, but claims involving the central govern- 
ment! Implications of old English troubles! Starv- 
ing soldiers clamoring for their bounty and money 
loaned, while accepting money of the government 
was, in many cases worse than accumulating debts! 
Perfidy and iniquity multiplying fourfold! Such was 
the state of affairs when Marshall first assumed the 
duties of Chief Justice. 



98 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

His clear head and patient industry gave him pecul 
iar qualifications for laboring in the chaos into which 
the jurisprudence of the States had been plunged by 
the Revolution and subsequent troubles. Questions 
of novel character were constantly arising. They 
had to be decided not by authority but by the light of 
reason and innate right. They had to be settled in 
accordance with the changed condition of the politi- 
cal and social affairs. 

It seemed as though the work was beyond the ap- 
prehension of a finite mind. The intricate and pon- 
derous duties seemed sufficient to confound and 
crush a senate, much more a single individual. But 
such were the peculiar adaptilities of Marshall that 
it was said, "he was born to be Chief Justice of 
any country in which he lived. 1 ' 

He had acquired habits of nice discrimination and 
close analysis in legal reasoning. With rare ability 
and skill he shaped the broad outlines of American 
constitutional law. His was an achievement of the 
highest order — a work not of revision but of creation. 

As an orator Marshall was without a superior. The 
master strokes of his eloquence shot thrilling along 
the veins of his hearers, and frequently extorted from 
his audience an involuntary and inarticulate murmur 
of approval. His whole face lighted up with mingled 
tires of genius and passion, and he poured forth an 
unbroken stream cf eloquence in a current deep, ma- 
jestic, smooth and strong,. 

His conscience was the keenest of the. keen. His 



JOHN MARSHALL; THE EXEMPLARY JUDGE. 99 

character was without a Haw. As a mail he 'vas with- 
out reproach. Justice — that rare virtue — permeated 
his very beiug\ His judgment was never carried away 
by sympathy nor warped by prejudice. He knew not 
how to be tyrannical. Nor could he be misled by the 
reasoning of even a Webster. Ever was he the cool, 
calm and well balanced jurist. With his almost su- 
pernal faculty he would detect at once the very point 
on which the controversy depended. However com- 
plicated and intricate the case might be, his analyti- 
cal skill would immediately solve and arrange in logi- 
cal order every thought. His opinions were clear and 
lucid, convincing even the most skeptical and preju- 
diced. He analyzed the question, weighed the evi- 
dence, and the case inevitably turned on its merits 
and not on the .eloquence and trickery of the unscru- 
pulous and interested lawyers. No one recognizing 
the authority of reason can ever question the correct- 
ness of Marshall's decisions. 

Daniel Webster's argument on the constitutionality 
of the State insolvent laws was pronounced unanswer- 
able. Judge Marshall, with his sharp lancet, dissect- 
ed the reasoning of the great statesman and exposed 
the vital defects of the argument. 

Marshall's legal opinions stand to his memory an 
eternal monument that the evils of time or tide will 
never wear nor corrode. 

A gallant general, a noted congressman, he was 
preeminently a great jurist. The honor of shaping 
largely the development of American government 



loo ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

under the federal constitution,* and of determining 
the character of our national jurisprudence, is due 
to that magnanimous, unassuming Chief Justice, 
" the Sage of America,' 1 John Marshall. 



THE FORGOTTEN HERO. 

Addie L. Tingley. 



FROM the most ancient times down to the present, 
nations have engaged in war. Those who have 
taken part in these great tragedies have won for 
themselves names which will ever live in the hearts 
of their people, some by daring deeds, others by vic- 
torious battles, and still others by superior general- 
ship. Some one has truly said, " The whole earth is 
the sepulchre of great men, not only are they com- 
memorated by columns and inscriptions in their own 
country, but in foreign lands there dwells also an 
unwritten memorial to them graven not on stone but 
on the hearts of men." 

The American people are proud of Washington, 
and all Europe honor the " Father of his Country." 
To the French nation Napoleon is a meteor of more 
than common brilliancy, and America does not 



THE FORGOTTEN HERO. 101 

withhold her admiration and respect. Our hero, how- 
ever, does not belong to this class. He is one who 
has performed feats more hazardous, gone thro dan- 
ger requiring greater physical courage; he is one who 
has lived and died in the cause which he loved, and 
for which he labored, but now sleeps in an unknown 
and unhonored grave. Our hero is as anciect as war 
itself. The bards of old sang of him. The Bible 
portrays him in terms of approval. In the "most 
high and palmy state of Rome 1 ' our hero figures 
frequently. Cicero's eloquence paints him in glowing 
colors. 

The danger to which he is exposed requires the 
utmost care and caution in the discharge of his duties. 
The shrewd, clear-headed, clear, quick and coura- 
geous alone are capable of occupying the position of 
the spy. The true bravery which leads him, in the 
interests of his country, to place himself in danger, 
and to bear the inevitable dishonor and contempt is 
worthy of historical record. The patriotism which 
leads him or* to uudertake such perilous work, at the 
risk of incurring the heaviest penalty which the stern 
mandate of war can inflict, characterizes one of the 
noblest offices in history, and one which requires 
infinitely more courage than to face a cannon's mouth 
or a line of bayonets. 

In ancient times Xerxes is said to have sent the 
Grecian spies found in his camp safely home; and 
later, Hannibal, not willing to be outdone by Xerxes, 
dismissed unharmed the spies which he captured 



to* ORATIONS A ND ESSAYS. 

But these are only exceptional eases; in all ages 
death has been the penalty inflicted upon the spy. 

The services of the spy are necessary. One instance 
is sufficient to show this: 

The Union army is pushing on rapidly toward 
Richmond when they are suddenly brought to a halt. 
The enemy occupy Yorktown and must be conquered. 
The general is uncertain which will be the better 
policy to storm the town at once or lay siege. He 
iinally decides to send a spy. Emma Edmonds 
undertakes the task: she enters the. city at night in 
the garb of a negro laborer; in the early morning she 
meets a band of negroes carrying coffee to the pickets; 
offering her assistance, she is soon busily engaged , 
all day she works on the fortifications, and at night 
visits all parts of the town. The following day she is 
water-carrier, a position which gives her an excellent 
opportunity to hear important matters discussed. A 
council of war is held, and she learns that General 
Lee believes it impossible to hold Yorktown after 
General McClelLin once opens fire upon it, The town 
is to be evactuated. That night in the storm and 
rain she leaves the Confederate army, and in the 
early morning is greeted by her friends. General 
McClellan receives her reports with joy, and that: day : ; 
takes Yorktown. 

The fate of nations often hang upon the information 
obtained through the services of the spy. While he 
remains in obscurity, the praise^ which justly belong 
to our hero, is heaped upon the general, and. amy.; 



THE FORGOTTEN HERO. 103 

and history which records their deeds passes silently 
over the labors of the one who has risked life and 
reputation for his country, —-the obscure spy, 



:o: 



SALUTATORY OF '89. 



Harvey M. Shields. 



THE greatest hero is the one who counts none of 
his past acts heroic. He is never satisfied, bu t 
feels nothing so great but that it might have been or 
may be, greater. 

The best general never lecalls past victories only 
to make them appear small in comparison with what 
the future warfare must bring forth. 

The most learned man is he who has discovered 
that he knows very little; has caught a glimpse of 
Newton's great ocean of truth, laving the sands of 
his acquirements. 

The Class of 1889 stand to-day upon the edge of 
their past. It has served to make us eager for a part 
in life's battle, to break the bonds that have kept us 
from breaking ourselves and do for the worM some 
of the* things which our fathers have done. 'It has 
Showii us-we- are not heroic- It has revealed few 



I04 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

traits of true generalship. We see ourselves sorry 
students of Nature and the God who made her ani- 
mate. We marvel at our own ignorance when we 
note infinite wisdom. No tears of success dim our 
eyesight as we look up into those realms of attain- 
ment to which we may reach. We have not been so 
heroic where true manhood was needed, so brave when 
we ought to have fought, so learned in learning, but 
that we can be more man-like, more duty-loving. 
We have risen just high enough to see how small we 
are, when there, lie about us great plains, deep valleys 
and high mountains of undiscovered truth. And yet 
for us today is opening the gateway of the future, with 
all its possibilities. Day by day, week by week, 
month by month, year by year, we have taken our 
journey and pitched our camp by the way of collegi- 
ate learning, seeking some knowledge, with loving 
hands to guide and help, until now we enter the turn- 
pike of life's actual experience. Boyhood and girl- 
hood have bloomed pleasure ad pain into manhood 
and womanhood. We must join hands with respons- 
ibility and use every power in the service of its own- 
er. For no man, high or lo'v, rich or poor, bond or: 
free, is his own. The creature is of the Creator. : 
And having the powers, necessity gives us commission. 
We are called to lead the forces of church, state and 
society militant against infidelity, lawlessness and 
communism. 

... Our past has not been what we can and must make 
our future. We thought, "Success", when perhaps- 



VALEDICTORY OF '89. HMj 

it was failure. We thought, •'Failure," when An- 
other may say, "Well Done." But we would be 
true men, true leaders, true learners, and forget 
what is gone, be it good or bad, bending every ener- 
gy to that which is to come, for it must be better. Fail- 
ure can never be so pr>babie but that success is pos- 
sible. The smoking flax will not be quenched. 

Today witnesses the dedication of our lives to the 
use of ourselves — great privilege, to the use of the 
world — greater blessing, to the use of God — greatest 
honor. 

Ln behalf of the Class of 1889, to every friend pre- 
sent, of thought, reason and truth, who can sympa- 
thize with young men and young women of purpose, 
and give them a blessing, I extend a hearty "Wel- 






VALEDICTORY OF'89. 



G. K. W. McGee. 



THE class of 89 is on the threshold of its future. 
Today we are soldiers ready for the battle of the 
world. But we have not achieved success alone and 
empty-handed. We have received aid from many 



io6 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

hands and owe many debts of gratitude. The Board 
of Trustees, the patriarchs of the institution, have 
been untiring in their efforts for our welfare. Sup- 
porters of the great cause of education, an interest 
above all earthly interests, your energy has been un- 
tiring. The reserve force of the College, your work, 
though not the most prominent, has bden by no means 
the least important. We often lose sight of it as day 
by day it goes forward, but it never stops. We for- 
get it but it still continues. And for all this care, effort, 
energy and goodwill we are sincerely grateful. 

In leaving you, our teachers, a deep sense of grat- 
itude demands an expression of thanks. It is all we 
can do to repay you. The services of the Christian 
teacher are beyond requital. In the future man 
and woman the student and teacher are indissoluble 
united and noble lives tell of noble training. For us 
yon have combined forbearance and patience with in- 
struction, have been tolerant of our faults and failures 
and given aid wherever aid wis needed. You have 
the tribute of our hearts. 

To you, our beloved Preside it and to you, his no- 
ble wife, we would express our gratitude and thanks, 
but we .cannot Words fail us. With you, our con- 
nection has been peculiar. No other band of stu- 
dents has been so related and no other has reaped 
such. rich results of its. connection. It may be that 
the -.world .will not prize them, knows not how to 
prize them, for they reveal little pomp or show. But 
of godly Uyes, they have gone to the upbuilding of pur 



VALEDICTORY OF '89. 107 

characters, of fostering true Christian spirits, of i in- 
spiring us to live those lives of usefulness, poor indeed 
to some, but more precious in the sight of Gcdthan all 
the glitter of gold, "boast of heraldry or 
pomp of power," and more valuable to us because 
they point to a "heritance eternal in the skies. 1 ' At 
times we have been wayward children. The blood of 
youth runs hot in our veins and has often prompted to 
unworthy action, but a losing hand has always been 
ready to point us to the "way everlasting. 11 For this 
we give, as we could but give, our gratitude and love. 
We bid you farewell. 

My classmates, vve are together for the last time. 
Epochs mark the career of men as well as nations. 
To-day, the ending of one tide of life, the beginning 
of another, marks an epoch for our class. All the 
joy and pleasure, all the success and failures now cul- 
minate and give to each of us a heritance for the fu- 
ture. Its value is yet to be determined. 

Besides gaining a college education, the prime ob- 
ject of all our labor, we have formed many friend- 
ships. Relations havj sprung up and we have been 
connected in various ways with each other and those 
around us. At first we met as strangers. We were 
united in aim and purpose Beyond this there was 
no connection. But as day by day vve came together 
in the class-room, performed the same duties, had 
common trouble and pleasures, we formed the frieni- 
ships- that are now so precious. These are what 
make parting hard. . . . 



io8 ORATIONS AND ESSAYS. 

Thus far our course iias been plainly marked 
There has been no doubt as to duty. Our interests 
have been carefully guarded by those who held them a 
sacred trust. We could not go astray, for hands 
tender but firm have led our going. For the future 
we must rely upon ourselves. There are no other 
human safeguards. We carry with us the effects of 
our training. They are inseparable from us. Misfortune 
cannot wrest them away, but they are ours to use for 
ourselves, for man around us and for God, Wide 
will be our field of action, diverse will be our employ- 
ments. But wherever lies our field of labor, of what- 
ever kind that labor, however pleasant or hard, it is 
to be that of honest, faithful men and women, look- 
ing to the glory of Him "who", himself, "doeth all 
things well." 

Partings must come. Farewells must be said. 
Never again, perhaps, will we meet in the realm of 
the living. But let us resolve that our walk in life 
shall so be, that in the great hereafter the meeting 
shall be joyous and happy, every one there, none 
missing. 

"We may not reach the height we seek, 

Our untried strength may fail us. 
Or half way up the mountain peak 

Fierce tempests may assail us. 
We may not triumph in success 

Despite our earnest labor— 
But though the goal we never reach, 
There's nameless strength in this" for each. 

By Heaven's help we will be worthy of it." 



Baccalaureate Sermon. 



:0: 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY, 
Rev. W. II. Penhallegon, Streator, III 



xi And as thy servant was busy here and there, he tms 
gone "-I Kings 20:40. 

Daniel Webster was once asked, "What is the most 
important thought you ever entertained? 1,5 The great; 
jurist and statesman replied, "The most important 
thought I ever, had was my individual responsibility 
to God.", This is a question of the greatest possible 
moment to us. all— ~a question that has gained noth- 
ing, lost nothing in importance, as the years have 
come and gone. A question that may serve not unfit- 
ly, I hope, the occasion, which has now called us to- 
gether. 

At the outset I will lay down the axiom, that to be 
morally responsible a man must be a free, rational, 
moral,agent. ,A machine is never held responsible 
for the> nature or quality of its work. Responsibility 
lays wit4i the maker t>r operator. It is not expected 
tjiat.aivengine will .work unle'ss there is water iu the 
boiler juicl fire in the furnace A watch may be made 
Osgood material and put together by a skillful artisan 



Mo BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 

but to make it of value as a time-piece you must wind 
it and set in motion. A piano may be ingeniously 
constructed and tuned to harmony, but to get music 
from it deft lingers must come in contact with the 
key-board. No sane man would blame the engine or 
Match for not woi king, or the piano for giving no 
music, if no human agency were employed. Nor can 
man be held responsible for his acts unless they are 
self-decided — L e., determined by his own spontaneous 
affections and desires. And here upon the very 
threshold of our theme we are met with the question 
of the free agency of man. It is worthy of remark 
that the inspired writers have never presented an ar- 
gument on the matter of free-agency but everywhere 
they assume it-as an established and an accepted fact; 
and then assumption is so strongly put as to make a 
syllogism. The forceful putting of human responsi- 
bility, the unmistakable light and language in which 
it is set forth, is such that he who runs may read. A 
certain course of conduct produces given results. Do 
thus: and reward is certain. Do so: and punishment 
is inevitable. If, therefore, the Bible teaches that 
man is responsible to God for his actions, there can 
be nothing contrary set forth in the Book. Its Author 
/lever involves himself in a logical dilemma. Thus we 
have already advanced far enough to see that the old 
notion of fatalism is unscriptural and unsound. For 
if man is responsible for his actions, we are driven to 
the belief that he is free to choose— to determine his 
actions. Advancing a step we see that the requests 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. m 

and invitations, addressed by God to man, and stand- 
ing out upon the pages of the Bible cannot be inter- 
preted upon any other hypothesis than that of the 
freedom of the will. These requests and invitations 
would be meaningless on any other supposition — in- 
deed the}' vvould.be so many instruments of tan talis m» 
But God never tantalizes his creatures. He never 
tells the blind man to admire the beauties of nature 
or art. He never asks him to turn his eyes either 
upon the landscape or the painting. He never com- 
mands the deaf to listen to the music to be charmed 
with the melody. The hungry man is never bidden 
by God to rise and eat unless ample provision is first 
made to satisfy the inward craving. Where the com- 
mand is given, there is also given the-, power to comply 
with its conditions; More than this,— there is- the 
power of individual choice. I will not take your time 
in relating the incident which gave rise to our text— 
you can read the chapter at your leisure— but I crave 
your attention while I seek to illustrate and enforce 
the theme which it suggests. 

In the interest of method, I shall present what I 
have to say under two general heads. 

J. Take, then, in the first place, the truth that we 
all have a. trust committed to us. And this is true 
whether we move in the humble walks of life, or in 
the higher; ir, the narrower sphere, or in the 
broader. . 

NATURAL POWERS. 

Whether it is circumstances or natural ability that 



1 12 BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 

does the most for man's success in this life is 11 debat- 
able question, but that f.or the proper use pf. both he 
will be held to strict responsibility, is aii indisputable 
fact. And we learn from Christ's parable of the 
talents, that whether we possess little \ or: much.— ten 
talents or one— the} 7 are committed to our* care as a 
sacred trust and we are to use? them for: God's highest 
glory- and man's greatest good by laying them out to 
the best advantage. 

No one is exeuseJ from service on the plea of 
limited means, or circumscribed ability. During the 
erection of Solomon's temple, hewers of wood and 
drawers of water were needed as well as the cun- 
ning artificer. V 

In nature the tiny flower that rises in modesty and 
emits its fragrance, tills its place as well as the gigan- 
tic tree that rises in majesty and gives its rich clus- 
ters of fruit. The grass-blade, one among a milliion 
fills its place and answers its' end the same as the corn- 
stalk bearing the ear of corn., The little spring 
gushing up betvs r een rocks of; ;the desert, serves its 
purpose and fills its place as well ast the mighty river 
which sweeps across the continent,* bearing upon its 
bosom the commerce of th^iiations: 

In apostolic. days, John' Sfip }^as utilized as well 
as Peter's pathos and zeajiy. The .experience .of 
Andrew as a fisherman as well -as Pa uFs •scholarly 
attainments acquired at the feet of Gamaliel, ■ Mat- 
thew's peculiarities .growing, out of -his experience as 
a tax gathered and Luke's culture -and refiaeuients, 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. \z, 

belonging to him as a physician, were all called irtto 
service and used to advantage. 

INFLUENCE. 

How true the words of Paul "none of ns liveth to 
himself.' 1 To me it is a serious matter that I must 
either be a light to illumine or a tempest to destroy . 
I must, as some one has put it, either be an Able 
who, by his immortal righteousness being dead yet 
speaketh, or an Achan, the saddest continuance of 
whose otherwise forgotten life is the fact that man 
perishes not alone in his iniquity. It is a terrible 
power we have— this power of influence. It clings to 
us. We cannot shake it off. It was born with us; it 
has grown with our growth and strengthened with 
our strength. It speakes, it walks, it moves; it is 
powerful in every word of the lip, in every look of the 
eye, in every act of the life. It is a power working 
unseen, but producing surprising results. It was Dr. 
Chalmers, I believe, that prince of the Scottish pul- 
pit, who said; "Every man is a missionary now and 
forever for good or for evil, whether he intends or 
designs it or not. He may be a blot, radiating his 
dark influence outward to the very circumference of 
society, or he may be a blessing spreading bene- 
diction over the length and breadth of the world, but 
a blank he cannot be. There are no moral blanks. 
There- are no neutral characters. We are either the 
sower that sows and corrupts, or the light that splen- 
didly illuminates, and the salt that silently operates; 
but being dead or alive every man speaks." 



H4 BACCALAUREATE SERMON, 

The influence of men who lived away back in the 
early dawn, of oriental civilization, is still discernable 
along the track of the world's history. The voice of 
the patriarchs comes down to our day and the lessons 
of their experience is still ringing in our ears. Joseph 
and Moses, Joshua and Samuel are holding before our 
eyes to-day the testimony which God called them to 
bear to his pTbvidenee and grace. Solomon's proverbs 
outlive his temple andean never perish. The poor 
widow with her two mites has been preaching charity, 
for eighteen centuries and is preaching yet. One 
does not need to be great in order to exert an influ- 
ence for good. The clarion voice of the great reform- 
er indeed rung out in "half battle" wprds over Europe, 
but it was first that of the poor miner's, son singing for 
bread upon the streets of Northern Germany. The pen 
of a traveling tinker has written a. book which has 
gone into many languages and many lands as the 
power of (rod, Wesley never dreamed of anything 
so great as the Methodism of to-day, when he be- 
gun his work. John Knox, with the scars of his 
bondage upon him, for he had been two years a 
galley slave in France, Scottish treachery having 
betrayed him to his doom, landed al Leith. Some 
one asked him why he had come back to his native 
land. 4< By God's help," he said, "to have Scotland 
for Christ" The instrument seemed weak and un- 
promising, the ^time-servers and politicians had made 
him old before his time, but he gave himself to the 
task, and succeeded by the blessings of God, in plant-. 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY, 115 

ing the truth so deeply in the hearts of his fellow men 
and the institutions of his country that it can never 
die. 

These good men have, long since gone on to God. 
But it is no mere stroke of rhetoric to say that as 
potent factors in the world, they fere more alive to- 
day than when they were at their labor. They can 
never die. But as it is with good men, so it is with 
those who are bad. The poisonous streams of their 
influence roll on to swell the great current of the 
world's thought, and mingle death with its waves. 
How much that was pure and holy has thus been 
neutralized! No one who loves his fellow-men can 
but shudder as he thinks of the mischief originated by 
those who by their example have lured others to 
the brink of hell, or have constituted them their suc- 
cessors to snatch the flag of wickedness from their 
dying grasp and wave it still. 

iSTo man, of manly instincts— of manly sense of 
honor, will be indifferent to the future. Cicero 
asked, "What will history say of me six hundred 
years- hence? "I am moi^e afraid of that," he went 
on.to say ? "than the chatter of my contemporaries, 1 ' 
"I have had the year two thousand and even the year 
three thousand, often in my mind," wrote Macaulay. 
Gladstone said, "The last, the severest, the surest* 
the most awful judgement is the compensating award 
of posterity." Lincoln, in his famous Gettysburg 
speech, speaking of the brave men living and dead-, 
who struggled upon that bloody field, said : "The 



>i6 BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 

world will little note, nor long- remember what we 
say here, but it can never forget what they 
did here, 7 ' 

"No action, whether foul or fair, 

Is ever done, but leaves somewhere, 

A record, written by fingers ghostly. 

As a blessing or a curse, and mostly, 

In the greater weakness or greater strength, 

Of the acts which follow it "- 

AN IMMORTAL SOUL. 

Dr. Cheever of blessed memory, one of the warm- 
est friends of Park College in the early and dark 
days of her history, whose memory is fittingly perpet- 
uated by the Literary Society bearing his name, after 
he had submitted to the second surgical operation for 
the removal of the cancer which finally ended his 
useful life, having had one eye, a cheek bone and part 
of the palate removed, said it his usual, happy vein, 
what a blessing that the Lord made us double, when 
half has been taken away* another half remain. God, 
however, has given us but one soul, losing it, all is 
lost. Flavell in his "Fountain of Life" has a parable 
that runs something like this, "a man having to go 
on a long journey called his most faithful servant, 
and committed to him the care of his child, saying 
I leave with you my most valuable treasure; spare 
no pains, no labor, no expense; take good care of him 
and when I return you shall be rewarded. Saying 
farewell, he passed away. After due time he 
returned. Having greeted his servant, he called 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. 117 

anxiously for the child. The servant retired and 
brought a bundle, saying:, here is the child's clothing, 
neat and clean, just as good as when left in my care. 
Yes, said the father impatiently, but where is my 
boy? Bring me my child. The child, sir, was the 
sad response, is gone, is lost. So said Flavell in his 
application, will it be with many when they stand in 
the presence of God at the last day, They will say, 
"here is my body; I am very thankful for it; I did all I 
couM for its content and welfare. I clothed it, I even 
decorated it. I pandered to its taste and gratified its 
passion, but the 'soul is lost,! 1 

This matter of looking after the spiritual, carried 
with it the idea of personal consecration to the ser„ 
vice of God-— the idea of a christion life and I call 
you to this life not because it tits you for an im- 
mortality of bliss beyond the grav<3, but because it 
fits you for the present life; not merely because it is 
the way of duty but because it is the only way in 
which you can find your own self, and then though it 
fill up a happy and useful career. There are issues 
springing from the eternal government of God from 
the issues of the eternal world, why men should be 
christians, but there are other reasons springing from 
the nature of their own souls. I state a proposition 
which few. will care to controvert when I say that 
man has a distinct need of God impressed upon him. 
One may have shelter, raiment and all his lower 
needs gratified, he may have his ambition and higher 
tastes pleased, but he is not at rest without God. 



ii8 BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 

A little child may be amused for a time, with, toys, 
pictures and candy, while it is away from its mother, 
but soon you hear its foot-steps, and its pleading 
voice as it cries "Mamma! Mamma!"- Though en. 
riched with wealth and surrounded with pleasure, we 
are indeed orphans so long as we are without God in 
the world.. No man can he, in the highest sense, a 
man, who is not a christian, A character without 
Christ is a cathedral without a dome— an arch without 
a key-stone. The old German Chancellor, Bismarck, 
once said "If you take the average native Parisian- 
he being an atheist and if you take away his tailor, 
his baker and his cook, what is left is Red Indian." 
Thomas Carlyle wrote a few years ago, with refer- 
ence to those who were being carried off their feet by 
the evolutionary doctrine of Darwin: "It is a sad and 
terrible thing to see men professing to be cultivated, 
and yet looking round in a purblind fashion and find- 
ing no God in this universe! The older I grow, and 
now I stand upon the brink of eternity, the more 
comes back to me the sentence in the catechism, 
which I learned when a child, and the fuller and 
#eeper its meaning becomes— * What is the chief end 
of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy 
him forever/ 

RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHERS. 

"Am I my brother's keeper?" was the question 
asked by the unhappy Cain, while yet the race was 
young. The prophet Ezekiel has answered the ques- 
tion, and the answer comes ringing down the ages. 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. lit) 

Listen. "When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt 
surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor 
speake3t to warn the wicked from his wicked way to 
save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his in- 
iquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand; 11 
Ezek. 3:18. The religion of Jesus Christ embodies as 
cue of its first principles, the duty of restraining men 
from sin and inspiring them with motives to holy and 
godly living. From the moment of a man's conver- 
sion, his whole being runs Christ-ward. The volume' 
of the river may be small at first, but small as it is its 
direction is decided and it gathers magnitude as it 
flows, for it draius the valley of its life. He keeps 
himself for Christ, because he owes everything to* 
Christ. Duty and delight now coalesce in his exper- 
ience. Christianity is essentially missionary in its 
spirit-. No sooner does one catch its impulse than he 
desires for others the same light—the same life*-' 
Thus it was that Charles Wesley sung;— 
"Oh! that the world might taste and see 

The riches of his grace, 
The arms of love that compass me, 

Would all mankind embrace. " 
And the sweet-spirited Bishop Heber in the third ' 
stanza of that missionary hymn, which alone would ' 
have immortalized his name, said, 

"Shall we, whose souls are lighted 

With vvbdom, from on high; 
Shall we, to men united, 

The lamp of life deny?*' 



Ho BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 

To the young ladies and gentleman who in a few 
more days shall pass over the threshold of college 
life Into the great stirring world beyond there confess' 
the warning against going forth on a selfish errand 
Selfishness is pitiful and paltry. Living merely for 
bread, for place, for fame, for power; for anvthin* 
but the glory of God in the good of human souls, is 
beneath the dignity of our being, beneath ;the grand- 
eur of our position. I went, a few weeks ago, by in- 
vitation of the Superintendent, to preach to the boys 
in the Reform School, at Pontiac, 111. After the seis 
vice the Superintendent showed me through their 
new chapel. Among other things of interest, , he 
pointed out a large mosaic window in one of the ga- 
ble's. It jis composed of pieces of stone 01 glass Im- 
measurably small. Each particle by itself would be 
of no value. But they had been taken and by the 
skillful fingers of the artist placed in order until .they 
stood out in beautiful shadings and grand conceptions, 
scarcely to be distinguished from the finest painting by 
pencil. We look upon men. In one sense we are 
insignificant. What can we do? So very feeble, 
inefficient, limited, what can we accomplish? And 
yet, when we put ourselves in the hands of the artist 
of. the universe and are placed by Him in the mosaic 
which the universe shall yet gaze upon with wonder, 
small as we are we shall be a part of his great design. 
But in order thus tp be used we must put, ourselves 
in His hands, realize our responsibility, and. give our- 
selves with earnest hearts to our work. If prayer be 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. 121 

what Tertullian has pictured it, the watch-cry of a 
soldier under arms, guarding the tent and standard 
of his general, then the habit of it ought to be cul- 
tivated by 'us more and more. The Bible, God's own 
word, we ought to know better. And if this human 
race is not a wretched foundling on the cold' door 1 - 
stone of a godless universe, then we ought to give 
ourselves to the work 3 list where God has designed ns 
to be, Let me go just where God wills me to be 
placed — on the farm or in the forest, in the shop, the 
mine, the store, the school or in professional life; let 
me do with ray might what God would have me to do; 
then small as I am I shall fill my place in the picture 
God is working out. "I am not here, 1 ' said Bishop 
Simpson «* without an object; I am not here without a 
home: I am not here for to-day,- and then to lie down 
and be buried beneath the clods of the earth. - I am 
here f>r all eternity. I am here because God has sent 
me to do a work, that no other being could do but 
myself. Had there not been room fG? rue God had 
not made me. I have a place, am sent of God on a 
mission, and if I perform it God shall acknowledge 
that I bare done His will, and shall some day say ih 
one so worthless as myself: ."Well done,! good and 
faithful servant, enter thou Into the joy*of tny-Lord." 
There is no honor so great as being a felUVw-'w'orkef 
with God/ No privelege comparable- with" that -'of 
being permitted to influence men for good. 

II. The second general thought of my sermon is a Bad 
one and I turn to it reluctantly. It is- this: that' while 



>22 BACCALAUREATE SERMON, y 

God has committed to us these great trusts — placed 
upon us these responsibilities — called' us -to these 
privileges— there is danger that they 'be neglected in 
the mad scramble after matters of less importance. 
Most men are very anxious about everything that per- 
tains to the interest of their common life. They lay 
plans, make investments, buy, sell and get gain, and 
in this they do well. The same Apostle who urged 
fervor of spirit, counseled diligence in business. But 
many make the mistake of becoming so absorbed in 
the latter as to forget the former. Speak to such 
men of Christ and his love, or the gospel and its 
matchless blessings, and they will sit unmoved. But 
speak of business, eulogize wealth, and introduce 
some new plahfor making it, and the number is not 
small who will be ready to bow down at the shrine of 
mammon, and worship the golden calf. * Speak of the 
future life, toward which w^e are all hastening, and 
your Words are lost upon the desert air. Turn your 
conversation upon the present life, that is swift as the 
weaver V shuttle, and as uncertain as its friendship, 
and their interest is immediately aroused. Speak of 
the Bible and its message of life, and many will turn 
away in lofty scorn; but introduce Wilkie Collins' 
"Haunted House, " Roe's "Barriers Burned Away/' 
Mrs. Ward's "Robert Eismere," or, perchance, the 
latest dime novel upon the market, and you will 
immediately discover that you have touched the ke}'- 
note of their literary taste. 

And this spirit is confined within no geographical 



Individual responsibility. 123 

line— *is pecftitaf to no class of society. It is found 
everywhere; it prevails with all; with the millionaire 
in his eounting'-house, and the tramp upon the street; 
the literary tnan in his study, and the farmer follow- 
ing the plow ; the statesman in the legislature hall 
and the humblest member of his constituency. It is 
the besetment of the professional man in his office and 
the one common characteristic of Young America. 
On every hand we find men neglecting the valuable, 
the beautiful, and engaging iu a wild chase after an 
imaginary prize. While in pursuit of those things, 
which, if caught at all, will seem like the baubles of 
a past childhood, they are neglecting those greater 
responsibilities. Rutherford, when asked what he 
regarded as the greatest sin of the age, answered 
with emphasis, Neglect, Neglect! And we are in- 
clined to agree- with him when we remember that it 
is simple neglect which causes most of the calamities 
of life. It is even now stated that the people of ill- 
fated Johnstown had been warned of the unsafe 
condition of the dam above their city, but neglected 
to make the necessary investigation and repairs, and 
as a result the most appalling calamity in the annals 
of American history. As we reflect upon these 
things, Paul's interrogation comes to up with all the 
greater force, "How shall we escape if we neglect so 
great salvation?" 

WORDS PERSONAL. 

Young ladies and gentlemen of the graduating class, 
your studies and struggles here being finished, yoii 



124 BACCALAUREATE SERMON, 

\yill soon go forth from the college walls to take your 
places in the great waiting world beyond. Your days 
and years, of school life have been days and years of 
privilege, but through them all you have been taking 
upon yourselves great obligations, weighty respon- 
sibilities. I almost envy you the years you hope to 
live and labor, It is a grand, a blessed thing to be 
young. Standing up in the glory of young manhooi and 
young womanhood, and in these last decades of the 
ninteenth century, with trained minds, brave hearts 
and consecrated purpose, your possibilities are unlim- 
ited-— you may write your canies upon the sky. 
Wh^.t can I ask better for you than that, your hopes 
may be larger, your ambition truer, your aims purer 
than those which in your best hours, when you stood 
upon the mountain top, you framed for yourselves. 
And may the blessing of Almighty God, who loved 
your father and your mother, who has guided your 
steps in all the days of your lives never forsake you 
and may there be given you that measure of grace, 
that you slight no duty, or neglect no responsibility 
as you go out on your diverging paths. Dictate no 
terms to Providence, but take, at any cost, the service 
to which you are called. Seek not rank, nor ease, 
nor reputation, nor anything, but the glory of God 
and the good of human souls, so shall you find the 
happiness you crave The great bridge at New York, 
connecting the first and fourth cities of the Union, 
besides being* a triumph of engineering skill, has 
some touches of pathos iu the history of its construe* 



INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. , 125 

lion- Roebling the elder, who undertook the work, 
met his death in an accident in the early stages of its 
progress. The responsibility then devolved upon his 
son, Young Roebling, in giving, as wa? his custom, 
hi* personal attention to all matters of importance 
connected with it, went one day to examine some 
submarine work, and while below the water, and 
mud, and sand, and silt contracted a cold from which 
he also nearly lost his life, and had thenceforth to 
give directions from his sick-room, his wife acting as 
his secretary. When the bridge was finished, Roeb- 
ling was taken from his home on the Hudson to a 
boat and brought down the river. Reaching a point 
from which the bridge could be seen, he gazed upon 
it with intense interest, and said in tones of satis- 
faction, to those who stood near him, "it looks just as 
I expected, 1 ' You have here been laying foundations, 
and have had assistance from teachers and friends, 
but now the work upon the superstructure of your 
jives and characters must be carried on, in a sense, 
alone. By and bye v\ hen the work has reached com- 
pletion and these same teachers and friends shall 
examine it, God grant they shall h'nd it such as to 
enable them to say with Roebling, it looks just as we 
expected. And then from an earthly manhood and 
womanhood, growing more large and resplendant, 
may there be reached out to you that character in 
Christ Jesus which shalL be perfected only in the 
Heavenlv land. 






\ 5 3^tD » 



